MOTU Horde War BK 4: The Valkyrie
by Deltara
Summary: The crew of the Starship Eternia journeys to the Val-kyrie home world for a period of rest and reorganization only to land in the middle of a brewing civil war between those who want to join the Guardians in fighting the Horde, and those who want stay out of the coming Horde War. Ch 6 up.
1. Dramatis Personae

Dramatis Persone

**Guardians**

Adrian Cobretti – War Wing armor (American)

Sonya Boradni – Hawk armor (Russian)

Jake Rockwell – Gatling Arm armor (American)

Brad Johnson – Claw armor (German)

Jeromy Ironwood – Blitzkrieg armor (British)

Sorceress of Grayskull – Falcon armor (Eternian)

**Guardian Command**

Brigadier General Eugene Hammond - Commander

Captain Jo-jo Majourny – Commander, Starship _Eternia_

Colonel Jonathon Markson – Alpha Platoon Commander

Captain Hohiro Takamora – Charlie Platoon Commander

Gunnery Sergeant Alphonse Apone – Alpha Platoon

Corporal Antone Frost – Alpha Platoon sniper

**Horde Forces**

General Rongar – Commander, Horde 5th Fleet

Captain Dragnar – Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

Sagan – Rongar's Chief Scientist

**Val-kyrie**

Commander Fontaine – Commander, Battlestar _Logoss_

Colonel Darius – First Officer, Battlestar _Logoss_

Major Noin – Assault Forces Commander assigned to Battlestar _Logoss_

Captain Graza – Blue Squadron Commander, Battlestar _Logoss_

Garan – Chief Medical Officer, Battlestar _Logoss_

Fravo –Chief Surgeon, Battlestar _Logoss_

**Old Alliance**

Empress – deposed ruler

Lord Malkor – Supreme commander

Cilian – Malkor's aid


	2. Prologue

**BOOK FOUR**

**THE VAL-KYRIE**

Prologue

Val-kyrie Battlestar _Logoss_

Unclaimed System

12 July 2017

Captain Graza slowed her fighter to a halt at the back of a group of parked Bladewings. Two fighters were being towed off to the inboard side of the bay and positioned on the elevator pads servicing the lower deck. Graza knew all of the craft were from her squadron, and those particular craft were from her flight, Blues Two and Four. They would need extensive repairs to the ablative armor.

As the engines shut down, Graza popped the canopy. It rose a couple inches and slid forward as ground crew members rushed up to begin post flight checks on the fighter. A boarding ladder was clipped to the left side. Graza released the four-point harness, stood up and climbed down the ladder.

Once on the deck, the captain stepped aside to remove her helmet and gloves. Gases hissed when the seal at the neck was broken. A twist of the locking ring and the helmet was easily removed. Taking off her gloves, Graza dropped them inside the helmet and handed it to her crew chief. They exchanged brief words on the condition of the craft then Graza turned her attention to the aft end of the bay.

_Ladyhawke_ passed through the air shield at the end of the bay and smoothly touched down. The starship slowed to a halt well short of the collection of starfighters forcing the medical team to run a fair distance across the desk. The pilot must have burned up the brakes bringing the craft to a stop in such a short time.

Her business finished with the ground crew, Captain Graza sprinted across the deck toward the _Ladyhawke_. She arrived just as the stretcher crew was leaving the starboard airlock. A young man was laid out on the platform, pale, and in obvious pain even though Graza could see no apparent wounds.

Colonel Darius showed up as the stretcher crew departed even faster than they had arrived. Two more males – one a young black man and the other an older and slightly overweight – exited the _Ladyhawke_. The older man approached the colonel; spoke with her for several seconds and then the pair left the landing deck. Graza presumed the pair was headed for the bridge to see Commander Fontaine.

Graza walked over to introduce herself. "I'm glad to see all made it out in one piece."

Corporal Frost frowned. "That remains to be seen. Who are you?"

"Captain Graza, commander of Blue Squadron. It was my flight that escorted you back." She stuck out her right hand. To her surprise, the young man clasped her forearm in the traditional Val-kyrie greeting. Graza spied Anyssa striding purposely over to them from her scout ship and knew where these aliens had gotten their information from.

"Where is Adrian?" Anyssa asked. Her concern was evident.

"They just rushed him off to the surgery unit. General Hammond is on his way to the bridge," Frost answered.

"I see you've met Captain Graza," Anyssa observed.

"Yes, we were just getting acquainted," Frost said, turning back to the captain. "I'm Antone Frost."

"What? No Sniper Extraordinaire?" Anyssa teased. Sobering, she continued, "You should get to the med bay. They aren't going to know about War Wing."

"Oh, crap!" Frost turned to the nearest med tech, who was a part of the team left behind to see to any more injured. "I need to get to your medical bay. Now!"

"Are you injured?" the woman asked calmly.

"No, but if I don't warn your surgeon, a sentient Guardian battle suit is going to hurt some people by mistake."

The tech hesitated, not comprehending what Frost was saying. He didn't have time to waste so he strode off across the bay toward the exit he had seen others take earlier. Anyssa intervened and ordered the tech to escort Frost to the med bay. Rapidly.

Captain Graza was about to say something to Anyssa when two more people appeared in the airlock. "A Quaedian warrior," she said when Dhalon stepped out.

"She's quick. No doubt about it," Dhalon replied.

"Captain Graza, this is Dhalon. A mighty Quaedian who has vanquished many a Horde trooper," Anyssa said. "And this is Teelana. She was the one piloting the bounty hunter ship."

Graza raised an inquiring eyebrow. "I was told the Sorceress of Grayskull had been on this mission."

"It's okay to feel underwhelmed. Most people have been these past few days," Teelana said tiredly, slowly dropping down to sit on the short ramp into the airlock. She looked like she was about to collapse at any moment. The knife wound in her left hand had opened again soaking the bandages with blood.

The med techs saw this and immediately began bombarding Teelana with questions. Teelana didn't want to deal with any of it. Captain Graza stepped in and told the techs to give it a rest. They countered that they had to know Teelana's injuries in order to treat her. Graza suggested escorting the woman to the medical bay and starting over.

While the captain coaxed Teelana into standing and slowly walking out of the landing bay. Anyssa and Dhalon entered the _Ladyhawke_ to gather some fur blankets.

Frost and his escort arrived at the med bay in time to see a med tech being carried out of the surgical suite. The corporal strode quickly over to the far side of the suite, which was on the left side of the medical bay, where the observation window was. Besides surgery, the suite was equipped to be air tight in the event of a viral outbreak, or anything else requiring a sealed environment.

The surgeon came out of the chamber before Frost could activate the intercom. She did not look happy.

"I can't operate like this," Chief Surgeon Fravo snapped. "How can I save this man's life when I can't touch him without getting zapped?"

Before Garan, _Logoss_' Chief Medical Officer, could answer, Corporal Frost stepped in. "How much do you know about the Guardians?" he asked Fravo.

"All Val-kyrie know about the legend," Fravo answered. "What does that have to do with your friend?"

"The abilities of the battle suits are limited only by the imagination of their operators," Frost explained. "The medallion he wears is his battle suit, which is using all of his power to keep my friend alive. You just…got in the way."

"I will not standby in the hopes that a machine might save your friend's life when I know that I and my staff can," Fravo objected. "Which suit is it?"

"War Wing."

"The winged one? The one with no name?" Fravo couldn't hide her shock.

"Not anymore. Now if you want to do your job, I suggest telling War Wing who you are and ask him to let you help," Frost directed, feeling somewhat foolish giving this woman orders.

"It's a medallion," Fravo muttered, clearly not grasping the full magnitude of the nature of the guardian armor.

"Besides my friend's life, what do you have to lose? Give it a shot?" Frost pleaded.

Fravo sighed and shook her head. She did not believe that the small medallion stuck to her patient's chest was in fact one of the legendary battle suits. Sighing, Fravo walked back into the surgical suite, sealing the hatch behind her. Shaking her head, the surgeon waved her assistants back and stepped up to the table. The six-pointed medallion still had an angry red glow. When the man had been brought in it had been glowing a vibrant blue until her lead assistant touched the patient.

"Whatever you're going to do," the tech monitoring the vital signs spoke up, "you had better do it fast."

Being careful not to touch the patient inadvertently, Fravo leaned down to address the medallion. _I feel like a fool,_ she thought. "War Wing, can you understand me?" The medallion pulsed in response. "I know you want to help him, but you can't keep it up. I am a surgeon. My team and I can save him, but only if you'll allow it. Please, let us do our jobs. I promise not to remove you from around his neck, but I must set you aside. Will you let me?"

Nothing happened. The angry red glow continued presumably because the battle suit was thinking it over. All the while, the patient's vitals continued to slip. Fravo was about to ask again when the redness finally bled out of the crystal set in the ring of points and returned to the vibrant blue of a few minutes ago. Taking this as a good sign, the surgeon cautiously used both hands to pick up and move the medallion to the table at the man's left shoulder. She made absolutely sure that some part of the silver chain remained in contact with his skill the whole time. Fravo wasn't sure that was necessary, but with one tech shocked into temporary paralysis, it was best not to take chances.

Once it was clear the danger was past, the team set into motion. Masks were donned along with gloves, hats to keep hair in place, face shields, and smocks. Frost watched the activity from the viewing pane marveling at the work getting underway. It was not unlike when he and his companions prepared their equipment before a mission.

Now, all Frost could do was wait and pray.

Captain Graza finally reached the med bay with Teelana and the pestering techs, waved the chief medical officer over. Garan shooed the techs away to see to the latest patient personally. She gestured to the back of the bay where the majority of the beds were kept in an adjoining room. Only the intensive care and terminal patients were kept in the front section.

With Frost keeping watch at the observation window, Graza didn't want Teelana getting emotionally wound up tighter than she already was. She looked pretty wrung out already. Teelana didn't protest when she was guided to an empty bed in the back room and directed to lie down.

Garan brought over a stool and sat down. She began to carefully remove the old bandages on Teelana's left hand while a tech rolled a wheeled tray stand in from the front room. Everything needed to treat the injury was laid out nice and orderly for Garan. Teelana felt remarkably little pain as the woman cleaned out the wound. What spikes of pain Teelana did feel were endured without complaint.

"Don't worry about your friend. He's in good hands," Garan said conversationally.

"Is it that obvious?" Teelana asked.

Garan nodded. "He's being tended to by the best surgeon in the fleet. I should know. Fravo graduated at the top of her class, which is why I recruited her." Garan put the final touches on the new bandage. "There. All done." She picked up an injector from the tray.

Teelana began to resist, feeble as it was. "I don't want to sleep. Not yet."

"This isn't going to make you sleep. It's to help you relax so that you can sleep. You are pushing yourself too hard and it will make you sick."

Anyssa and Dhalon arrived with the blankets from the _Ladyhawke_, in tie to hear the exchange. Dhalon dropped his load on the next bed over while Anyssa set hers on the end of Teelana's bed.

"There is nothing more you can do for your friend except take care of yourself," Garan persisted.

Teelana turned pleading eyes to Anyssa. The warrior woman simply nodded slightly. Teelana reluctantly relaxed and allowed Garan to inject her. There was brief hiss from the injector followed by Teelana immediately feeling her tension melt away. Anyssa moved in to remove the upper arm band and gauntlet. A touch of a control below the bed opened a drawer where the items would be stored for later. Anyssa pulled off Teelana's boots and placed them in the drawer and closed it. She and Dhalon wrapped Teelana in one blanket and draped the second over the first. Teelana was sound asleep by then.

Before leaving, Garan looked the patient over once more. Teelana had turned onto her left side and was loosely clutching a crystal of some type in her right hand. "The young man out there said the Guardian battle suits can do just about anything, right?" she asked Anyssa.

"Yes, they seem to be limited only by what the operator can imagine. Why?"

Garan pointed to the crystal. "That was on her left hip."

Frowning, Anyssa moved in to take a look. Although Falcon did not take the usual covert form of the six-pointed medallion with a glowing crystal in the center in this case, the crystal still should be lit like it was alive. What she saw between Teelana's fingers shocked her. "That can't be good," she said to herself.

Colonel Darius led General Hammond through the corridors to the bridge. The general was amazed at how the bustling activity resembled that of his own command. Some things did not change regardless of the cultural differences.

The bridge was different from anything Hammond had ever seen, though he did recognize the purpose of several stations. Darius led him up to the command platform where Commander Fontaine waited seated in her chair.

Fontaine swiveled her chair around at their approach. "General Hammond. Welcome aboard the _Logoss_."

"Thank you, commander. You have a very impressive starship," Hammond replied. "Thank you for your timely arrival. I don't think we could have made it off that planet without your assistance."

"Like you, we don't like to leave people behind," Fontaine said. "Rest assured, your injured are in good hands."

"I would like to check on my people as soon as possible, commander. Adrian Cobretti was not in very good shape that last I saw of him."

"My chief medical officer recruited the best surgeon in the fleet. He's in good hands. After I finish a few things here, we can go to the medical bay and check on your people," Fontaine said. She turned back to the forward view port. The stunning kaleidoscope of color that was the hyperspace tunnel visible through the port was lost on the command at this particular moment. She was more concerned about the seemingly insignificant strike the _Hoscar_ landed during the battle.

A tech rapidly approached the platform, handed a data pad to the commander, and departed just as quickly. The pad contained an analysis of the exchange between the _Logoss_ and the _Hoscar_.

"I thought the Val-kyrie had a habit of leaving only dead Horde ships in their wake," Hammond observed politely.

"Ordinarily, yes, we like to leave no witnesses or data to analyze. Sooner or later someone would manage to survive. It just happened to be General Rongar," Fontaine replied. "we suspected that a man in his position as head of the Horde science directorate to develop new weapons would have his flagship outfitted with experimental weaponry." She gestured with the pad. "This data confirms it. The battle also displayed several weaknesses in our battlestar design that will have to addressed once we return home. I'm still waiting for the damage report on the strike we took in the engagement."

"We would be interested in any information you would be willing to share with us, of course."

"Of course. However, you will have to discuss that with the Queen Mother. I'm guessing that is the reason why you are out here?" Fontaine said with a slight smile.

"One reason among many," Hammond agreed.

Rising from her chair, Fontaine tugged at the hem of her jacket. "Colonel, you have the bridge."

She gestured toward the back of the bridge and she followed Hammond out into the corridor.

The activity had not died down any now that the battlestar was well away from the battlefield. Hammond guessed that this was the normal state of affairs for a ship this size. Going into battle must be a lot more hectic.

Along the way, a tech caught up to the pair with another data pad. This was the report Fontaine had been waiting for from the chief engineer. Fontaine slowed to a halt and stepped out the way as she read through the report. She read through it again just to make sure she didn't miss something.

"Well," Fontaine muttered, "it's going to be a long flight home."

5


	3. Ch 1

ONE

Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

Unclaimed System

12 July 2017

Captain Dragnar marveled at the routing of conduits running across the ceiling. Different sizes and types sent coolant, air conditioning, electrical and other needs into the bridge systems, and onward throughout the other compartments on the deck. They criss-crossed the ceiling in a bizarre pattern only the engineer who designed it could understand even though the conduits were clearly marked with color-coded bands. It was amazing to Dragnar that he never once looked up to see what was above him other than the environmental ducts, bridge lighting, and the hidden speakers for the comm system.

The captain, along with everyone else, was lying on the deck because the last volley traded with the _Logoss_ shook the _Hoscar_ so violently that even those who had been seated found themselves sprawled on the deck. He did not bother trying to get up because the main and auxiliary power systems were down, and Dragnar was waiting for the killing blow from the Val-kyrie warship.

After what seemed like an eternity to pass, which were only several minutes in reality, Dragnar finally pushed himself to a sitting position, and then finally got to his feet. "Why haven't they finished us?"

General Rongar got to his feet, a bit shaky. "Maybe they are playing with us," he answered. Even as he said it, Rongar knew that was untrue. The Val-kyrie did not play mind games when engaged in battle. They had a strict code of honor in battle the usually prohibited destroying a ship that was clearly out of the fight. The only exception was their engagements using their deadly powerful battlestars. Could it be that they were about to be the first to survive and engagement with a battlestar complete with sensor data?

It had to happen sooner or later.

"All systems are down," Dragnar said, beating a fist against a dark engineering console. Many of the troopers were damaged when they got thrown about, so he and Rongar where the only ones moving around on the bridge. "Even the battery system is compromised."

"That means we are shallow breathing," Rongar said grimly. Shallow breathing was among the worst fates for any spacecraft, submarine, or any vessel with a closed environmental system. It meant that the only air available was whatever was trapped in each compartment. The robots would continue on, but the living crewmembers would last only as long as the air did.

He made his way across the debris-strewn deck to the back of the bridge and the access hatch for the maintenance tunnel. The turbo lifts would not be functional with the power out, so the maintenance tunnels would be the only way to get around the ship. Fortunately, the release mechanism for the hatch was purely mechanical. Rongar, opened a small panel to the right of the hatch, pulled the level recessed inside, and pulled the hatch open with the handle imbedded into it.

It finally dawned on Rongar that he hadn't needed to fumble about in the dark. The emergency lighting was working, so maybe the emergency systems were finally stabilizing. Even so, the maintenance tunnels had only a few lights in them and they were always at access points. The general found a powerful light stored in a locker below the release lever. He aimed into the dark tunnel and switched it on. The sudden blazing light stung his eyes.

"And just where do you think you are going?" Dragnar inquired.

"We have to get power back online. And we need to take a look outside to see what's going on. "I don't intend to sit and wait for the _Logoss_ to return and finish the job," Rongar answered. "If I know Sagan, he's already making his way to the engineering section to see what he can do to help."

Dragnar pulled another light from the storage locker. "Fine. You're right. If we get power back, I can command the ship from the auxiliary bridge or your flag bridge." He gestured into the maintenance tunnel. "After you."

The pair split up two decks down. Captain Dragnar headed aft to see how repairs were progressing in the engineering section. General Rongar headed for Sagan's lab to verify that his friend had indeed headed out to help where he could. Rongar would also pick up his flight suit and then head to a hangar bay on the virtually undamaged port side to take out a scout Bat mek to see what the situation was like outside.

The damage through the core of the ship was next to nothing, so moving repair parties through the length of the ship should not be an issue. The majority of the damage would be in the bow where the main cannon mounts had been placed, and along the starboard side. At least the gravity plating still functioned. It'd be a lot harder to get around, and Rongar's stomach hated zero gravity. He tried not to think about all the times he had thrown up during training.

It didn't take long to get to the lab. Most of the corridors had sporadic lighting and all the door controls were still not functioning. As expected, the lab doors had been pried open. Sagan was nowhere about so Rongar reasoned the man was somewhere in the aft sections. He didn't waste time wondering. He ignored the ominous shadows thrown about by the light as he picked his was around looking for the locker where his flight suit was stored.

Rongar found the locker near the disassembled White Knight battle suit. The thing had looked menacing enough when they had first found it in a separate pyramid ten kilometers from the one where the other six suits had been recovered by the Earth people. White Knight looked terrifying without all the cosmetic armor plates in place.

_Don't be ridiculous,_ Rongar scolded himself. _It's just a machine. Besides, its power core had been removed for overhaul._ That assurance just couldn't quite dispel the feeling that the suit somehow knew what was going on, and that it was watching him now. He shook it off as nerves, and nothing more.

He pulled the flight suit from the locked and took the time to change into it. Rongar settled the oxygen back on his back, sealed the collar, gloves, and boots. The status panel on his left arm verified that all closed seals were secure. Gathering up the helmet and light, Rongar left the lab and headed for the most direct route through the maintenance tunnels to the main hangar on the port side. Although he wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, he was glad to be out of that lab and away from the specter that seemed to surround the White Knight battle suit.

A few minutes of travel through the cramped confines of tunnels brought him out at the primary hangar bay on the port side. Several of the blast doors had shut during the engagement with the Val-kyrie. Some troopers that were still functioning were in the process of manually opening the doors all along the corridor. Rongar quickened his pace toward the hangar to see what the situation was, and to see if it would be possible to get a scout ship out to see what was going on out there.

Several humanoid members of the crew were busy in the hangar trying to get things back in order. Several scout ships and a few remaining fighters were being readied for launch should the captain order it. Most of the debris scattered across the deck was from crafts that got thrown about and storage lockers that had broken open. Fortunately, nothing flammable had sparked or the damage would have been much, much worse.

Rongar told the man in charge that he was taking a scout ship out and his team needed to figure out a way to get the outer doors open for him to launch. It was a difficult proposition without at least auxiliary power, but Rongar left the crew to figure it out while he preflighted the scout Bat mek. The ship was in good order. It would function as it was designed to. It was basically the same as the standard fighter version with a crew of two, but the laser cannons and the energizers powering them had been removed to make enough room for the sensor suit the airframe was required to carry. The differences were all internal. Only the lack of laser cannons marked it as something else.

The crew entry hatch was open aft of the nose landing gear. Rongar climbed the ladder to the flight deck, touched several buttons on the control panel at the top of the entry well to retract the boarding ladder, and moved into the cockpit area. He settled into the left seat as the outer hatch closed and sealed with a hiss of pressuring gases. The hangar crew was still working on the problem of getting the outer doors open as Rongar began powering up the scout ship. He set the interior and instrument display lighting to his preferences; just enough to see by.

A detached part of Rongar's mind also worked on the problem of getting out the hangar bay. The battery power system was stable, but lacked the capacity to do anything more than maintain the bare minimal life support and emergency lighting. It was nowhere near enough to activate the atmosphere shield and open the doors.

Just when he thought this was a fool's errand and the Val-kyrie was going to blow them the atoms at any moment, anyway, a miracle happened.

Standard lighting was restored to the hangar. Systems dormant because of the lack of power suddenly came to life. It was as if the ship were waking up after a brief slumber. The comm system crackled to life, scratchy but able to be of use.

"Testing…one…two…three…"

"Sagan! I should have known you'd be the one to get us back up," Rongar declared, relieved. Now he had a chance to get outside and see what the situation was like.

"Nah," Sagan replied, "This crew knows what they are doing. I just helped bypass the destroyed conduits. I heard a rumor you want to go out and see what the enemy is doing?"

"Someone has to," Rongar answered.

"Well, the hangar crew should be able to get the doors open and the atmosphere shield up. Captain Dragnar said that was priority after the environmental systems, which we should have back up to a sufficient level in about thirty minutes."

"Then I guess I'd better get going. No point in restoring the ship if the Val-kyrie are maneuvering around for the kill shot," Rongar said. He switched frequencies and contacted the hangar crew. They were making final checks on the doors and the shield. The last of the debris in front of his ship was cleared away so he could launch.

Warning klaxons blared three times before the atmosphere shield snapped on. The outer door slowly ground upward opening the hangar bay to space. Only the shield kept the air from blowing out into the vacuum, which would have taken anything not bolted down out as well. The shield did not, however, keep the heat from bleeding off within fifty feet of the opening.

The bat mek's engines were warmed up and ready, but Rongar didn't use them or the catapult system to launch. Such power spikes and rapid movement would draw the attention of the Val-kyrie, if they were still around. If the _Logoss_ was still out there, they would return and finish the _Hoscar_ off. Instead, he nudged the throttles up to generate just enough thrust to get the ship rolling forward and ease its way through the atmosphere shield.

Rongar got up enough inertia to pass through the shield and snapped the throttles back to the idle stops. Once clear of the hangar, he used maneuvering thrusters to orient the scout craft. Under his deft touch, the scout ship rolled and yawed until the port side hull was now the horizon. Rongar cautiously made his way toward the bow with minimal use of the engine throttles to provide forward momentum at an altitude of a mere thirty feet above the hull plates.

The secure channel to the auxiliary bridge crackled to life. "Still alive out there?" Captain Dragnar asked. The connection was full of static but communication was still possible.

Rongar lifted an eyebrow. "You were expecting me to have been shot down by now?" Dying in an unarmed scout ship with his battlefield reputation would be…embarrassing.

"I was expecting all of us to have been shot down by now," Dragnar said. "Not that I'm complaining about being alive, mind you."

"We'll figure out what happened later. Right now I'm approaching the bow."

"How's it look?"

It wasn't in very good shape. The tri-barreled main gun mounts took a beating. The dorsal mount was so badly mangled that it would have to be scrapped. The port side turret was intact and would probably fire once main power was restored. As Rongar looked on, the compromised ventral turret mount post gave way sending the damaged capital weapon on an eternal voyage into the starry night. There was nothing salvageable about it, anyway.

Rongar cautiously rounded the bow to get his first good look at the starboard side. He knew the damage would be pretty bad, had even seen some starships so badly shot up that they had to be destroyed on the spot, but none of that prepared him for the sight that drifted into view.

The starboard turret was gone along with much of the thick armor plate. Most of the armor had been blown off or vaporized during the battle. Many compartments were open to vacuum. The blast doors appeared to be holding in the compromised sections.

"Okay," Dragnar said, "give it to me straight. How bad is it?"

"Remember your worst fears before we went head-to-head with the _Logoss_?" Rongar asked. He made sure the recorders were documenting all sensor and visual scans.

"Yes," Dragnar answered after a brief pause.

"Multiply that by a thousand." A muttered curse answered Rongar.

A few seconds of silence passed, and then Dragnar asked, "Is the _Logoss_ still out there?"

Rongar had forgotten all about the Val-kyrie. Fortunately, the scout ship was designed to be a multi-task vessel. While the short-range sensors recorded the damage to the battleship, Rongar directed the long-range passive sensors to reach out and search for unnatural objects. While the passive mode was not the most accurate means of scanning local space, it would not draw unwanted attention that an active sweep would. He had to filter out a lot of clutter floating in space that was debris the _Hoscar_ was shedding in its wake.

After almost of minute of cleaning up the sensor display, he got a picture of what was out there. While he could not see them visually, Rongar identified seven objects that had to spacecraft. One was huge, closely matching the dimensions of a battlestar. The range was too extreme to get a better idea of what the others were. Several had to be fighters. One should be the bounty hunter ship.

"Yes, it's still out there. Commander Fontaine appears to be recovering spacecraft and heading home," Rongar reported. "I have no idea why they haven't sent anyone back to finish us off. If they have a problem with their weapons grid, Fontaine still has enough fighters to make short work of us."

"Hey! Don't go sending out negative waves like that or else she'll feel it and send a few fighters out to grant you your wish," Dragnar admonished.

Rongar smiled, but said nothing. He was approaching the stern of the _Hoscar_ without any reaction from the Val-kyrie. Once the Horde ship had been disabled, and the _Logoss_ apparently unable to finish her off, there was really no reason to stick around. Maybe the sensor scans from the battle will yield more information, provided the logs were still intact, of course. This was a disturbing change from the normal behavior for the Val-kyrie. Warships had a nasty trend of not surviving an engagement with a battlestar. Not even a log buoy was allowed to remain intact.

The engine nozzles appeared to be intact so the sub-light drives shouldn't blow up right away. Rongar was more concerned about the starship's structure being unstable due to the missing armor plate and, more importantly, the lost structure supports that were the 'bones' of a starship's frame.

A change in the long-range scan display drew his attention. All the blips on the display save one large one had disappeared. The last one vanished moments later. Rongar presumed that they were now the only living things left in the unclaimed system.

Rongar keyed the comm. "Well, I have some good news and some bad news."

"What's the good news?" Dragnar asked cautiously.

"We're the only ones left in the system."

"And the bad?"

"We're the _only_ ones left in the system."

Dragnar was silent while Rongar wrapped up his inspection of the damage and began making his way toward the open hangar bay. Rongar knew Dragnar was having similar thoughts as he. What could possibly have happened to force the Val-kyrie to break off and withdraw? Why leave a live enemy at their back with potentially all the data needed to begin mounting a defense against their deadly battlestars? The theories were many, but nothing would be substantiated until the memory core was examined to see if the sensor readings from the battle were still intact.

_It would be just our luck if the main core was damaged in just the right area where the sensor data from the battle was stored_, Rongar thought as he maneuvered the scout ship back into the hangar bay.

"Well, the long-range sensors are totally destroyed. Short-range is in better shape, but it'll take about a day to salvage anything useful," Dragnar said.

"My, haven't wee been busy while I was away," Rongar chided.

He lined up on the approach beam to land in the hangar bay. A brief burst from the main drives followed by several slight adjustments with the maneuvering thrusters eased the scout ship into the hangar for a perfect landing. A trooper guided Rongar into the parking spot using light wands. Once parked, Rongar shut down the engines, hit the release for the boarding hatch and ladder, and transferred the sensor data to a removable crystal.

Rongar plucked the crystal from the sensor console behind the pilot's seat on his way out. He wasn't surprised to see Captain Dragnar waiting for him at the bottom of the ladder. "I take it you were at least able to see the status readout of the ship?"

Dragnar nodded gravely. "I imagine your visual scans will show the damage is a lot worse than the damage control panel indicates." He pointed to the crystal in Rongar's hand.

The pair left the servicing of the scout ship to the surviving ground crew and left the bay for the auxiliary bridge. Rongar didn't bother to remove his flight suit until they arrived at their destination. Along the way, Rongar was pleased to note that many of the blast doors were now open in many of the pressurized sections. They arrived at the auxiliary bride after a few minutes' walk. Dragnar walked over to a panel at the aft section and set the crystal into a slot on the damage control panel to begin reviewing the data while Rongar got out of his flight suit.

"At least the blast doors can be opened," Rongar observed. "That should make things a little easier."

The doors parted and a haggard, dirty and tired chief scientist entered. Sagan found his way to one of the many empty seats and dropped heavily into it. He had pushed himself hard to help get the auxiliary power grid at least functional enough to restored life support, damage control and other vital systems. He caught a glimpse of the recording where Rongar began flying along the damage starboard side and winced.

"Not a pretty sight, is it?" Rongar said, dropping into another seat.

The damage control computer was busy matching up the sensor and visual scans to the status board. The starboard side of the dorsal view light up almost entirely in red indicating compromised compartments. Fortunately, most of those were along the outer hull. Only a few went deeper in areas like the hangar bay and its associated compartments. The visuals of that area indicated that the safety system for the ammunition and fuel storage functioned as designed. In the event of an explosion, the blast was directed outward away from the core of the ship in much the same way that a shaped charge directs its blast in a desired direction.

"It could have been worse, I guess," Sagan replied. "We could all be dead and we wouldn't be worrying about anything." He tried to smile, but it only came out as a half-hearted grin.

"You look like hell, Sagan."

"Oh, good. I was feeling like death warmed over," Sagan said. "They have a handle on things back in engineering, or what's left of it. The chief engineer thinks he'll have a better idea of the status of the propulsion systems in a couple hours."

"Well, according to this display, the engines are not going to do us much good even if they don't explode upon ignition," Dragnar said. He gestured to the dorsal and starboard deck displays. "There is serious structural damage on the starboard side. I doubt the ship could handle crossing the threshold of a hyperspace window much less make it anywhere relevant."

"We don't need to go very far," Rongar said. "All we really need in maneuvering power and low thrust levels from the sub-light engines."

"What the hell for?" Dragnar objected. "We're light-years from the nearest major Horde starbase with a dry dock."

"Ah, but there were several groups of ships heading for this system at the time of our engagement with the _Logoss_," Rongar pointed out. If we can get underway at even low speed back to the planet, any Horde ship arriving in system will see our power emanations and come to our aid."

Dragnar shook his head. "That sounds like something those Earth people would try."

"Oh, well then let's not try it," Rongar said, grinning.

"All right, damn you," Dragnar sighed. "But we're going to need to shore up some of that structure out there before we try any kind of maneuver or we could lose more pressurized compartments."

"Captain, Sagan, how's your zero-gee training?" Rongar asked.

Sagan and Dragnar exchanged hesitant looks.

"I remember my last recertification made me queasy. Why? What have you got in mind?" the captain asked, knowing he wasn't going to like then answered.

6


	4. Ch 2

TWO

Val-kyrie Battlestar _Logoss_

Enroute to Home System

13 July 2017

It was late in the ship's night when General Hammond arrived in the med bay for his shift. Once Adrian had been moved from the surgery suite to the intensive care section in the bay's main area, Chief Medical Officer Garan authorized a duty watch on him until he woke up. Colonel Markson set up a shift schedule lasting two hours at a time. Such watches were not uncommon among the Val-kyrie.

Volunteers for the job were in big supply, and that was just among the four platoons. The general slipped himself in for a last time slot that just happened to coincide with a visit from Commander Fontaine. Their earlier visit the day before had been cut short due to the report the commander had received on the status of the _Logoss_.

Colonel Markson was lurking in the shadows along with Captain Hohiro Takamora. Hammond looked the about the room briefly, nodded to the tech on duty at the station of the right, and walked over to his people.

"I take it there is no change?" Hammond asked quietly.

Hohiro shook his head. "None. He's not going to come out of it until he's ready."

Hammond nodded. "What about the Sorceress?"

"She's been asleep since yesterday. Using the Falcon armor closer to its true potential took a lot out of her, apparently," Markson said. He had seen some of the battle recordings gave him a greater insight as to just what the War Wing and Falcon battle suits could do. If the capabilities of those two had been scary before, Jon found them truly frightening now.

"She's probably going to continue going by the name Teelana until she returns to the castle to transform back into Grayskull's guardian," Hohiro added.

"Practical," Hammond agreed. He noticed a familiar form lying on the third bed over. "What about him?"

Markson glanced over at the sleeping man and shrugged. "He won't leave. Considering you brought Frost along for the ride, and given his close friendship with Adrian, I haven't had the heart to order him back to the _Eternia_."

"Well, we had a rough go until you finally arrived, so it's probably best to give everyone a chance to unwind," Hammond said. "You two can go. I'll have company shortly."

"A later night rendezvous?" Markson asked suggestively.

"It's best if you didn't know all the details," Commander Fontaine said from behind him. The colonel jumped slightly at the sound of her voice. "For your own protection." Her smile had a hint of danger.

"Now I know where Anyssa learned to sneak up on people," Hohiro replied.

"Oh, she learned that from her mother. I just helped her refine the skill," Fontaine said good-naturedly.

The captain and colonel excused themselves and left the med bay to try to get a good night's sleep. That would be tough considering the debriefings were to begin bright and early in the morning. The debriefers on the _Eternia_ were of the humorless variety that could easily get a job working for the IRS. Jon much preferred the personal briefings with Hammond. Unfortunately, the general would be among those interviewed on this particular occasion.

The tech on duty noticed the commander standing over with General Hammond and rose to come over and give a report, but Fontaine waved the woman back. She could tell there was no change, so there was no need to rehash old news.

"I have it on fairly good authority that we are jumping in and out of hyperspace," Hammond said.

"Not one for small talk, aren't you?" Fontaine replied with a slight smile.

"Well, maybe we can make up for it later," Hammond proposed.

Fontaine considered it a moment, then said, "Okay. Yes, we are making hyperspace hops. The _Logoss_ is one of the few ships still equipped with the first generation hyperdrives requiring the use of heat sinks mounted on the hull on both sides of the drive section. That's because the first gen hyperdrive is not thermally efficient. In normal space and hyperspace, the heat sinks bleed the excess heat buildup out of the ship. The commander paused to bring a chair over to sit on next to Hammond. Once settled, she continued, "It's a delicate system with no room for faults. We took a glancing blow from the _Hoscar_ which damaged several of the heat sinks before I gave the order to employ our secret weapon. As it stands now, we have to run in hyperspace as long as possible before dropping back into normal space to completely bleed of the heat, check the systems, and then make another run."

"Sounds like there is a downside to this," Hammond said, listening intently.

Fontaine nodded. "The downside is that because of the imbalance in the heat sink array, the hyperdrive takes damage during each operation. Naturally, the length of time we can fly through hyperspace is diminished, which is why the system has to be checked after each cool down period. My chief engineer thinks she has a modification that will give us the use of the damaged heat sinks, but it will likely only last for one use. So, it's my intension to get as close to the home system as possible before using."

"A final jump that will burn up the patch and the hyperdrive?" Hammond said. "Sounds risky."

"It is, but the hyperdrive won't blow up, if that's what you are thinking. The safety system is designed to sense an impending failure and drop the ship back into normal space," Fontaine explained. "If all goes well, we'll drop out on the edge of the home system and we'll finish the trip on sublight drive."

"How long do you estimate it will take us to get to the home world?"

Fontaine sighed and looked around the med bay before answering. "The trip would normally take about two days, but now it's likely to take at least six."

"Well, I would like to make a call to Earth, at your convenience. I should give President Alexander and update on the mission."

Fontaine nodded. "That shouldn't be a problem once we figure out the time difference."

She fell silent and studied the sleeping patients; specifically, Adrian and Teelana. She found it amazing that this pair actually managed to pull off a near impossible mission. She was well aware that it had taken more than just these two people, of course. The woman did not look like the Sorceress of Grayskull despite the description she had been given. Then again, Fontaine didn't really know what to expect. Neither of them looked like what one might expect one of the legendary Guardians to be. Real life was seldom like the legends.

"Not what you were expecting?" Hammond inquired. "I'm afraid that none of the Guardians quite live up to the legend the Sorceress uncovered."

"They will make their own legend. And we will document everything for the future," Fontaine said.

She grew pensive thinking about what was happing. Time and again she wondered if this was the right time to be antagonizing the Horde. Val-kyrie strikes against Horde warships, starbases, and other facilities, just to let them know they weren't alone in the universe, was one thing. Fighting an undeclared war with the recovered Guardian battle suits before major powers were ready to fight such a conflict was another. Once the Earthers recovered the six suits there was no turning back. Maybe, just maybe, these unorthodox people with their mix of technologies from the advanced starship _Eternia_ to primitive ballistic weapons will turn the tide. They had proven effective so far.

In order to engage in space operations against the Horde warships, the refugees rescued from the penal planet had been moved into the massive repair hangar at the bottom the battlestar situated between the landing bay pods. Anything that could not be down on the lower deck of the landing bay was done in the maintenance hangar. At present, the proof of the Earther's effectiveness against the Horde was there being tended to in a makeshift medical ward. The political climate would change drastically once word got out of the rescue.

Fontaine noticed the sleeping corporal and asked, "What's his story?"

"Oh, him. Corporal Frost," Hammond said distractedly. He had been lost in his own thoughts the same as the commander during the lull in their conversation. He had been tempted to ask about the secret weapon she had mentioned earlier, but decided she probably could not say anything without clearance from higher up. "When we covered the Guardian battle suits we were engaged by a small force of Horde warships, a couple cruisers, several frigates and destroyers, if I remember correctly. Anyway, the corporal was on top of the pyramid where the Guardians had been stored sniping at the enemy. We had lost several snipers already and he was about to be shot by a battle drone carrier that rail gun pod the Horde prefers."

Fontaine nodded in understanding. She knew a few warriors who had fallen to those medium and heavy drones with their weapons pods mounting rail guns and grenade launchers.

"Just before a drone opened fire on him, Adrian materialized close by with War Wing, though the armor wasn't named yet. The drone shifted its fire, and Frost was saved. Frost has been a friend to Adrian ever since," Hammond explained.

"Yes, such friendships tend to last a lifetime," Fontaine agreed.

"Given the other abilities Adrian has developed since retrieving War Wing, volunteers to go through a door with him have come up a little short." A tiny bit of frustration crept into Hammond's voice. Many people in his command still tended to treat Adrian like a mutant. Only those who have fought beside him have no such inhibitions.

"If it isn't an imposition, I would like to see whatever you can share about the guardians and their abilities," Fontaine requested. "The descriptions when the mission was being put together were less than adequate. I would like to compare what the suits and operators can do now versus what the legend states they were capable of. It would be interesting to see just how the machines have evolved and have changed their current operators." Hammond had a peculiar look at that. Fontaine smiled. "You mean your scientists haven't noticed? How else would Adrian have developed his ability as a metamorph?"

"That has been cause for speculation," Hammond admitted.

Their attention was drawn to Teelana who turned over in her sleep. The back of her left hand landed on the dark crystal lying next to the pillow. The crystal was in fact Falcon in her stealth form. Teelana settled down and continued to sleep peacefully.

_Teela'Na awoke in a strangely familiar place; familiar, because she stood in the main hall of Castle Grayskull, and strange because she had gone to sleep light-years away on a Val-kyrie battlestar. She discovered that she was also dressed in the costume of the castle's guardian. Frowning, Teela'Na walked around the elaborate sculpture, if that's what it really was, that separated the throne area from what must have been a reception area._

_She made her way across the chamber to the grand staircase that appeared to have been grown from the rock. The sounds of her boot heels were somehow had a hollow echo to them. Teelana figured the best place to go was up to her private chambers. If there was an answer to this situation, it would be there._

_No one was about, but Teela'Na suspected she wasn't alone as she approached the door to her private chambers. Hesitantly, she reached out for the handle and thumbed the latch release. Nothing leaped out at her as she eased the door open. The shadows in the spiral stairwell normally did not bother her, but this time she had a touch of nerves._

_Nothing moved in the single chamber. The shadows were unusually thick considering it appeared to be quite bright outside. She could see the high-backed armchair against the far wall from the rounded awning from the door and did not see anyone sitting there. Teela'Na walked around the large box bed with the sweeping falcon sculpture overhead to see if anyone was home. There, laying on the floor out of sight on the other side of the bed, lay a humanoid figure._

_Teela'Na knelt beside the figure and was not surprised to find a human woman. Turned the woman over confirmed her suspicion as to whom it was._

"_Falcon. Are you all right?"_

_The avatar of the Guardian battle suit called Falcon stirred at the sound of Teela'Na's voice. "I knew you would come," Falcon said weakly._

_Teela'Na helped the beautiful, raven-haired woman to a sitting position. "What's going on? First, I was asleep in the medical bay on the _Logoss_, and now I'm here in Grayskull talking to you."_

"_Actually, this is all in your mind. I needed to speak to you, but I don't have the energy to initiate contact. I need your help. That hit we took during the fight with the Horde seems to have damage me worse than I initially thought. I'm bleeding off energy and my automatic repair system doesn't seem to be working properly," Falcon struggled to explain._

"_Can you revert back to battle-mode?" Teela'Na asked, fearing the answer._

_Falcon's mouth moved, but it was several moments before she found her voice. "I don't think so. You will have to make a sacrifice in order to achieve that. You did say you are on a Val-kyrie warship?" Teela'Na nodded. "Then they will have what you need to save me once I am back in what you call battle-mode. They will have our designs stored away somewhere."_

_That came as a shock to Teela'Na considering how picky the suits AIs were about anyone poking around inside them. She knew that underneath the cosmetic external armor all six battle suits were identical._

"_You're sure about this? It sounds like we won't have a second chance if you are wrong."_

_Falcon's eyes cleared of their faraway look to bore through Teela'Na's eyes and into her head. "I am not wrong."_

"_I guess we'll have to leave that interesting story for another time," Teela'Na sighed. "If you ever tell me, that is."_

"_Be careful what you wish for. Some stories don't turn out the way you hope they will," Falcon warned. "Now go. You have preparations to make. I must conserve what energy I have left. We will not be able to speak again unless you and the Val-kyrie are successful."_

_Before she could say anything, Falcon, the castle, her entire world dissolved into blackness…_

The disconnect had been so abrupt that Teelana woke up in the real world. She sat almost straight up startling General Hammond and Commander Fontaine. The med tech on duty rushed over in an instant.

"Bad dreams?" the woman asked politely.

"You could say that," Teelana replied. Her mouth felt like the Sands of Time desert.

"Would you like something to help you sleep?"

Sagged back just a bit, Teelana blinked several times to bring the blurry images of the general and commander into focus. "How long have I been here?"

"Just over a day," Fontaine supplied.

Teelana shook her head. "I've slept enough."

The tech nodded and returned to her station to resume whatever it was she had been doing.

Teelana's memory of the med bay finally came back to her. She saw Frost sleeping peacefully on the bed to her right. "He won't leave," she stated rather than questioned. Hardly surprising given Frost's friendship with Adrian since the day they found the sentient battle suits and fought the Horde to keep them. Thoughts of Adrian drew her upright. As if reading the woman's mind, General Hammond gestured to her left. Not really feeling up to it, Teelana threw back the fur blankets and swung her feet over the edge.

It was irrational to think that he was dead because he wouldn't be left in the bed next to hers if that had been the case. Adrian's breathing was strong, but Teelana could see he was in a deep sleep or coma judging by the rate. He was pale underneath the goatee he had cultivated for the cover as the notorious bounty hunter calling himself Cobra. The man's brown hair almost touched his bare shoulders. Teelana remembered joking that he was trying to grow a mane of hair to match hers. The blue glow from the six-point medallion that was War Wing in what they called stealth-mode radiated through the blanket covering him.

Teelana slid off the side of her bed and dropped to her knees beside his. She took up his right hand in both of hers and clutched it to her cheek. Tears welled up in her eyes, overflowed, and ran down her cheeks in tiny rivers.

General Hammond made a step toward Teelana, but the commander waved him back. She approached and squatted down next to the sobbing woman. She flinched when Fontaine placed a hand gently upon her shoulder.

"I've seen the footage from the battle shot by the fighter gun cameras and that recorded by Anyssa. It wasn't your fault anymore than it was his," Fontaine said quietly. "This is what happens in a battle. You are alive and so is he. Don't second guess yourself. Don't feel sorry for either of you. It was a tough situation and the two of you came through it intact."

"I know," Teelana sobbed. "I'm glad he's alive. It's just that Falcon was badly damaged. It was a conversation with her in my mind which ultimately woke me up." She let go with her right hand to wipe away her tears, and looked the commander in the eye. "Falcon is dying and I don't know what to do to stop it. She is losing power and her auto-repair system isn't working. Falcon said the Val-kyrie would have detailed blueprints of the battle suits and the technology to save her."

Teelana's revelation rattled Fontaine. The number of people who knew detailed blueprints existed numbered under a dozen. Those who had ever seen them numbered even less. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Fontaine said, "It's true we have the blueprints. As for the technology, well, that will depend on what I can find out. Don't worry, we won't let the AI perish." She rose to her feet and rejoined Hammond.

Hammond had heard the second part of the conversation. "If Falcon is damaged a badly as she says, can we really repair her?"

"The blueprints are not as closely guarded a secret as you might expect. It requires certain clearances to gain access, and only then to certain professions. One of my junior engineers reportedly has a fascination with the Guardian suits," Fontaine explained. "If anyone will know, it will be her. She won't be on shift until the first watch, however." She started walking toward the entrance when she noticed the next pair of people from the _Eternia_ had arrived for their watch. "I will arrange a meeting with her in my quarters. I will let you know the time and make sure you are present."

"Thank you. I hope the damage isn't something that we can't fix," Hammond said grimly. He said he knew the way back to the quarters assigned to him aboard the _Logoss_ and did not require an escort. As a visiting dignitary from Earth, in effect, he could not in good conscience refuse Fontaine's hospitality. He bid the commander a good night and turned to brief Lieutenant Alexis Feril, their ace dropship pilot, and their resident computer specialist, Private Catherine O'Rourke.

"The Sorceress is still going by the name Teelana. She's just woken up and told us troubling news about Falcon," Hammond said. "The suit has been damaged and the AI will die if we can't fix the problem in time. Her emotions are running high right now so be careful. I know diplomacy isn't one of your strong suits, lieutenant, however…"

"I'll look upon this as an opportunity to sharpen my skills, sir," the lieutenant replied. "I'm sure the private here will keep me from putting my foot in my mouth."

_If I don't swallow mine first,_ Catherine thought. "Don't worry, sir. We'll leave her be unless she wants to talk. And we'll make sure the word is passed to the follow-on shifts to have a care," Catherine promised.

Crewman Jaxia was on time for her shift in the engineering section, the chief engineer looking for her immediately upon her arrival. While still fresh out of the academy and engineering school and prone to making mistakes, Jaxia could not recall any recent errors worthy of the chief's attention. If she did make a mistake recently, it was best not to put off being chewed on before getting back to work on the jury rig for the damaged hyperdrive heat sinks.

Jaxia found Chief Dorma in her office. "You wanted to see me chief?"

Looking up from the data pad in her hand, the striking, brown-haired woman smiled and waved Jaxia in. "Yes. Don't worry. You are not in trouble," Dorma said reassuringly. She gestured with the pad. "I was just reviewing your graduation thesis about the Guardian armor. Seems it granted you access to the design specs on the suits."

_Okay. So I'm not in trouble, but do we really have time to talk about the Guardians when there was a hyperdrive to nurse along until we get home?_ "Yes, chief. Their design has been a hobby of study for me. I was hoping to see one or two of the suits while the _Eternia_ is still aboard," Jaxia said, fidgeting with a touch of embarrassment.

"I'm happy to hear you say that, because you are going to get your chance," Dorma said. At her subordinate's shocked look, she went on. "One of the suits sustained what sounds like severe damage. The capacitor failing to hold a charge and the auto-repair system is not functioning."

Jaxia frowned. "If the suits actually have a sentient AI as rumored, that's bad. The AI could be destroyed if power fails completely. Unless it shuts itself down out of self-preservation," she mused.

"As of this moment, your job is to save that suit's AI. It takes priority above even getting this ship home," Dorma said as serious as Jaxia had ever heard the chief be.

"I understand, chief. However, I doubt I can do it alone even with the Earth people to help. I may have to adapt some of our technology to theirs and that won't be easy," Jaxia advised grimly.

"Once you have figured out what equipment you need, just send the request directly to me along with whomever you need, and I'll make it happen. Now, get whatever you need for a briefing with Commander Fontaine and the two Earth people you will be meeting. A General Hammond and the commander of the starship _Eternia_, Captain Majourny," the chief said, rising from her chair. "They are expecting you. Don't worry about the heat sinks. I want you to concentrate on the battle suit. Don't let me down."

"I won't, chief. I'll have what I need in about ten minutes."

"I told the commander you would arrive in twenty after our talk, so get going. Dismissed and good luck."

Jaxia nodded and hurry from the office. The reality of her new tasking finally set in when she arrived minutes later at the crewman's barracks to retrieve the data crystal and pads containing ideas she had developed for potential modifications. Once word got out that the Guardians were on board, Jaxia had rather doubted she'd ever get to see one or meet any of their operators. Now, she was going to see at least several of them, talk with the operators, and help repair one of the legendary battle suits. Jaxia just hoped she didn't embarrass herself in her eagerness at the opportunity of a lifetime.

Commander Fontaine sat behind her desk in her personal quarters reviewing the status reports on the health of her ship and crew. General Hammond and Captain Majourny were seated across from the desk awaiting the arrival of the resident expert on the Guardian armor.

Repairs were proceeding on the Bladewings that had taken damage in the battle with the Horde forces. None had been lost to enemy action. There had been several casualties on board during the firefight with the _Hoscar_, but none of the injuries had been life-threatening. As for the jury rigging of the damaged heat sinks, well, work continued on a design that might allow the heat sinks to be used one more time for the last leg of the hyperspace jumps that would hopefully land the _Logoss_ on the edge of the home system. In the meantime, the imbalance in the heat dissipation continued to damage the hyperdrive. Each jump degraded the effectiveness of the unit requiring longer stays in normal space to bleed off excess heat and to check on the progress of the degradation. Other associated systems where checked as they could become compromised as well. Chief Engineer Dorma was confident she could get the _Logoss_ home.

"Does your command generate as much reports as I have to sift through every day, General Hammond?" Fontaine asked. The data pad in her hand was one of almost a dozen scattered across her desk requiring her attention.

"From what I've seen of your starship, I would have to agree," the general replied.

"It never ends. Sometimes I'm tempted to just delete it all just to see how the bureaucracy would react."

"Very badly, I should think," Jo-jo commented. "But it would be entertaining."

"Just remember who writes your performance reports," Hammond chided.

"Has the Sorceress figured out yet what she must do to get Falcon back into the battle-mode?" Jo-jo asked, changing the subject.

"Not yet," Hammond answered. He had visited the med bay before coming to the commander's quarters. "She has assured me that she will have it figured out by the time the preparations on the _Eternia_ are ready."

The door chime sounded at that moment.

"And that should be our resident expert," Fontaine commented. "Come."

The door slid aside and young women with dark golden hair falling to her shoulders nervously entered the room. Jo-jo wondered if the girl was any older than Anyssa, who had stated that Val-kyie had long life spans, when they weren't getting killed teaching the Horde the virtues of not angering the Val-kyrie people as a whole.

"Please, come in crewman. We've been expecting you," Fontaine invited. "Normally, I like to greet each new member of my crew and judge if they really will fit in on a battlestar," she said for the benefit of her other guests. "However, our deployment to support the operation to rescue He-man and his friends did not allow me to meet everyone. This is Crewman Jaxia. Jaxia, I'd like to meet several of our allies from the Planet Earth." Fontaine gestured to Hammond. "This is General Hammond, commander of the Guardian Command. And this is Captain Majourny, commander of the Starship _Eternia_."

"General. Captain," Jaxia greeted them in turn.

"We understand that you are as close to an expert on the Guardian battle suits as we are likely to find around here," Jo-jo said.

"Well, I'm not sure I would qualify as an expert," Jaxia said, somewhat embarrassed. "But I have been fortunate to be allowed access to their design schematics."

"Such access is not unheard of for those who show exceptional aptitude and Jaxia is one such person," the commander explained. "I believe your graduating thesis was on how to improve and maybe augment a battle suit's rather limited capacitor charge. I'm sure that would have been of great use in the last battle War Wing and Falcon had with the Horde."

"I don't know anything about that, commander, but I believe my theory could work," Jaxia replied.

"Well, we need your help to get Falcon repaired before her power drains away which will likely kill the AI. Please, show what you have," Fontaine instructed. "After that, we'll see about putting some of you theories to the test, with General Hammond's permission, of course."

"Absolutely," Hammond agreed.

The engineer set her data pad down on the desk along with a device she arranged in the proper place before activating it. The holo-projector flared to life at the touch of a control on the pad. A wireframe view of Falcon appeared in the projection cone and slow revolved.

"The design is quite amazing. Although the external armor plates and weapons differentiate them from one another, strip all that away and the basic chassis is identical to each other," Jaxia explained. She manipulated the image so that the exterior stripped away to show the internal structure with the outline of a human figure inside. Jaxia further changed rotation to stop with the backside in view and enlarged it to show the backpack in detail. "Here is the backpack assembly housing the main thrusters and the regenerating capacitor core. If there has been serious damage to this, the auto-repair system may in fact be non-functional since the controls for that system also appear to be housed there.

"There are two items at the bottom of the pack that likely allow us to save the AI and repair the suit. The power receptacle access port is on the lower left side. It can be used to supplement the capacitor, or recharge it," Jaxia explained, pulling up a detailed wireframe of the receptacle.

"Yes, we had that very idea in mind," Jo-jo said. "The AIs are not very forthcoming with information about how they work." Jaxia frowned at that. "Well, they are sentient machines who don't like people poking around inside their structure, and they really don't like being referred to as objects. Anyway, we have charging stations set up in the _Eternia_'s dropship hangar, however, we have been unsuccessful in designing a compatible connector."

Jaxia sifted through some of the icons on her pad looking for something that had just occurred to her. Although keenly aware of that her audience patiently waited on her, Jaxia did not want to delay too long. "I think we have something that will work, if only I can find it. The shape looks very familiar." A few more seconds of searching finally yielded a surprising result. "I thought so. The port is an almost exact match for the energy coupling we use to charge the energy cells of all our vehicles"

"Now how could that be, I wonder," Fontaine mused. She had long suspected that some of the Guardian's systems may have been based on Val-kyrie technology. That seemed to have been confirmed. Now Fontaine wondered if the reverse might be true that some Val-kyrie tech came from the battle suit designs.

"It shouldn't be difficult to see if our couplings can be adapted to your starship's power system, captain," Jaxia declared after looking at the inner workings of the part.

"Then you should probably begin immediately," Fontaine advised. "I won't ask you how long it'll take without having seen their technology, so I'll ask who and what you'll need instead."

Jaxia pursed her lips in thought. Finally, she said, "Six power couplings, wiring conduit, and two engineers to assist with the work."

Fontaine nodded. "Done. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call for it."

Jo-jo said, "I'll have a direct comm. Link from the dropship bay to your bridge established just in case." Turning to Jaxia, she added, "It goes without saying that you'll need access to one of the Guardians. Do you have a particular preference? Since AIs are as fickle as humans, one of the operators will need to convince their suit to cooperate."

The crewman didn't hesitate on that point. "Hawk will be fine. Since the other feminine suit is the one that's damaged Hawk might be more receptive based on your assessment." She turned to her commander. "I would like to gather the parts, tools and personnel before going to the _Eternia_."

"That's fine. I believe the ship is in the process of being towed through the connecting tunnel between the landing bays now." Fontaine checked the chronometer on her desk. "The tow should be complete by the time you arrive. _Eternia_ is to be parked in one of the inboard large vessel spots."

Jaxia nodded, deactivated the holo-projector and took her leave to gather the people and supplies.

When the young woman had gone, General Hammond said, "Now we have to hope we can save Falcon in time. As closely linked as the AIs and the operators are becoming, I don't really want to find out what the death of one will do to the other."

Jo-jo looked at her commander sharply, but didn't say anything. She thought back to the report about the Sorceress apparently dying from King Hiss' venom shortly after being returned to Castle Grayskull. The Sorceress' rather vague report stated that her essence, or soul, had been separated from her body while the castle worked to repair her physical form. In effect, the link between her and Falcon had never been truly broken.

With nothing else to discuss at the moment, Captain Majourny left to make arrangements with her crew regarding the Val-kyrie visitors they would soon be hosting. General Hammond left Commander Fontaine to catch up on her reports while he returned to the medical bay to check on Adrian Cobretti and to see if Teelana had made any progress.

10


	5. Ch 3

THREE

Val-kyrie Battlestar _Logoss_

Enroute to Home System

13 July 2017

Anyssa arrived in the medical bay bright and early so see how things were going. After the previous day's chaos, the tense atmosphere on board the battlestar was slowly evaporating. Damage control was still underway in the engineering section, and damage fighters were well on their way to being returned to service. None of that concerned Anyssa, however, since she was not a member of the crew. She had a mission of her own involving her adoptive family.

Teelana was still in the bay, as expected, sitting next to Adrian's bed. Anyssa nodded greetings to the pair of soldiers from Delta Platoon. She did not recognize them so they must be new transfers.

On the other side of Teelana's empty bed, Private Frost stretched and braced himself up on his elbows. "Well, my day is looking brighter already," he beamed, smiling at Anyssa.

"Since you are so rested, you can help me," Anyssa said.

Frost couldn't get of the bed fast enough. "Sure thing. Need some help with your ship? Lessons in sharpshooting? Maybe polishing the hull of a scout shuttle?"

"I'm sorry," the Val-kyrie replied after moment. "Suddenly I thought I was talking to Jake Rockwell."

Deflated, Frost replied, "Oh, that's cold. For the record my I.Q. is higher than his will ever be on a good day."

"Then prove it by helping me get Teelana out of here for a while for food, shower and a fresh change of clothes."

Teelana finally acknowledged that she had company. "Bad?" She was referring any potential foul aroma she might be emitting.

Looking suddenly self-conscious, Frost said, "I wasn't going to say anything."

"I can't. I should be here," Teelana muttered.

Anyssa pursed her lips, crossed her arms and contemplated how best to handle this situation. When one confronted a person who had the magical abilities Teelana did, one had to tread lightly.

"Oooo. I've heard rumors about that look," Captain Graza said from the entrance.

"What look?" Frost asked, lost.

"There are tales of the looks Anyssa used to give at the academy. Rumor has it even instructors gave Anyssa a wide berth from time to time," Graza answered. She walked over to the group. "I see some of us are thinking alike."

"Is that good or bad?" Frost inquired.

"That depends on how stubborn the Sorceress wants to be," Anyssa answered. She never took her eyes off Teelana.

"Until I return to the castle and enter the Pool of Power again I would prefer to go by the cover name I gave for the mission," Teelana said quietly.

"Which may or may not be your real name, but I'm fine with that," Anyssa said evenly. "Adrian is under constant care here and people from the platoons are on rotating shifts. I'm sure he would be upset to see you hurting yourself like this."

"General Hammond said pretty much the same thing," Teelana acknowledged.

"Good. Then let's go have a change of scenery," Graza proposed. "We don't have to go anywhere special."

Seeing that the three were absolutely not going to simply go away, Teelana realized she was being selfish. It was a new feeling for her given all the years she spent in Castle Grayskull guarding its secrets and selflessly helping others in need. She didn't like the feeling. Not one bit. Anyssa was right. Adrian was in good hands. His condition was stable, and he would be mad at her for how she was behaving right now.

Sighing in resignation, Teelana rose from the tool. "All right. Let's go to the _Ladyhawke_. There are people on this ship I would rather not talk to right now."

None of them had any idea what she was talking about, but since Teelana was being agreeable, no one was going to press the matter.

"I'll see about getting some hot food delivered," Graza said. She walked out heading for the crew mess hall.

Anyssa escorted Teelana out with Frost catching up seconds later. "What kept you?"

"Just placing a quick call."

"Afraid I would try to get away?" Teelana asked. It was a bad attempt at making a joke, but considering the past couple days, it was an improvement.

"Well, I suppose you could just whip up a portal and disappear to parts unknown, but I knew you wouldn't," the corporal said. "No. I was calling for room service at the ship since you and I both smell like week-old cheese."

"I'm sure that went over well. Let me guess. You get what you asked for as long as you don't go back to the medical bay. Right?" Teelana guessed.

"Something like that. There is also the matter of the debriefings. I'm to report in sometime today for my round with vultures," Frost said sourly. "Don't know why I can't just write up a report."

"Because they can't read?" Teelana quipped.

"Now that's the Teelana I've come to know and love," Frost said blithely.

"I think it's more likely because they don't trust that the reports are accurate," Anyssa said. She sounded somewhat disappointed. No Val-kyrie would ever falsify an after action report, but not all Earth people held such high ideals. Her debrief on board the _Eternia_ had been a painful exercise in mistrust and going over the same thing again and again until they were satisfied that she was telling the evaluators the whole truth. Soon she'd have to do it all over again for her people, which Anyssa was looking forward to because she would fill in the gaps from her scout shuttle's data recorders and that would be the end of it.

The trio made their way through the corridors rapidly without any delay. People stepped aside as they passed, which Frost found a little odd, but he didn't say anything. He figured it was because they were from the Earth ship and were essentially VIPs on board the Val-kyrie warship.

The landing bay was the normal bee hive of activity with Bladewing fighters being serviced, moved into position in front of the launch tubes, or being taken to the elevator platforms along the inboard side of the bay.

_Eternia_ slowly emerged from the connecting tunnel to the starboard landing bay. A large tow vehicle was connected to the starship via a heavy towing bar that was attached to the front pair of landing gear struts. Those struts were equipped with steering linkages so the ship could taxi under its own power.

The trio slowed their pace so as not to interfere with the towing operation. Frost had to keep his jaw from dropping at the sight. He had been in some truly big hangars and structures like the underground hangar in Area 51, but the hangar bay of a battlestar put those to shame. The tunnel the ship was towed through could have easily accommodated two _Eternia_-type starships being towed side-by-side. The bay's ceiling was more the twice again the height of the _Eternia_. The limiting factor was the after entrance of the bay which was only about half of the bay's overall height.

Working the dimensions in his head gave Frost a headache. He concentrated instead on the comparatively tiny form of the _Ladyhawke_ parked further down the inboard side of the bay. The tow team pulled the Earth ship past the bounty hunter ship and maneuvered it into position facing outboard. The tow vehicle was disconnected from the bar, turned around and hooked back up. Several people exited the back of the cab and spread out to positions at the back and sides of the starship to watch for any dangerous condition as the starship was pushed back into position next to the _Ladyhawke_. The whole operation took only a few minutes. Once in position, the tow crew disconnected the bar, hooked it up to the back of the vehicle, climbed inside the spacious cab and the driver departed the area for their next assignment.

The forward ramp lowered and pairs of troops trotted down to take up station not only at the ramp, but a pair strode over to the _Ladyhawke_ to take up station at the port and starboard airlocks.

"Yo, Franklin," Frost said, bumping fists with the young private assigned to the _Ladyhawke_'s starboard lock. "How's it hanging?"

"Better than you after the vultures get done with you," Private Franklin replied, handing over a package to Frost. "Rumor has it they are grilling everyone in the debriefings."

"That'll change when the general's turn comes up," Frost said confidently.

The private shook his head. "Rumor has it even Colonel Markson got grilled. Dhalon almost ripped one of debriefers apart when his integrity was questioned."

"That would have been fun to watch," Frost laughed.

"And would you have sold tickets to the show, or popcorn?" Teelana inquired. She stepped up the keypad to the right of the airlock hatch and tapped out a code. The locks disengaged and the hatch slide aside. She walked inside without waiting for the corporal's answer.

Anyssa followed Teelana inside, but the Franklin caught Frost's arm. "Is she all right?" He asked nervously.

"Who? Teelana?" When Franklin nodded, Frost continued, "Look. She's been through a lot on this mission. The fact that she's making jokes is a good sign."

"Yeah," Franklin called out as the corporal followed his friends inside. "At least until her turn comes up for the debriefing."

"That's when I'll _really_ sell tickets and popcorn," Frost replied as the outer hatch closed. Frost exited the lock, and stopped in the main passage the led forward past the crew cabins up a flight of steps to the cockpit and upper deck, and after through the cargo hold and into the engineering space. The cargo hold doors were open and the entire chamber was cluttered with tools, open crates and refuse. "I could have sworn we left ship in better shape than this."

"You did," Anyssa confirmed. "A maintenance crew has been assigned to complete the modifications and upgrades they couldn't get done before the mission began."

Teelana walked to the door to her cable on the port side of the ship and keyed the control pad. The door slid aside to reveal a mess. "Does that include my cabin having the same overhead storage cabinets and a useful desk like in Adrian's?"

"Yes," Anyssa answered, frowning at the clutter of opened crates that contained the cabinets. At least the drawers under the bed hadn't been invaded.

"Good. Then I can stop being jealous," Teelana declared. Pointing across the corridor, she said to Frost, "I don't think Adrian would mind if you use his cabin. The door should be unlocked." She waited until he tried the keypad. The door opened and the man stepped inside to freshen up. Teelana stepped into her cabin, keyed the door closed and set about her own refreshment.

Left alone for the moment, Anyssa wandered back into the cargo hold to poke around.

Teelana took her time, but Frost returned in fifteen minutes looking and feeling refreshed.

"So? What do you think?" Frost asked. His new uniform was exactly like the one he had been wearing, just less rumpled.

"Not much of an improvement," Anyssa said honestly.

Dejected, Frost grumbled, "And this is why my relationships don't last long."

"Maybe you just haven't found the right person."

Frost scoffed, "Who in their right mind would want to hang around with me? I go off on dangerous missions to God knows where. Each one could be my last. What woman would want to put herself through that kind of torture?"

Anyssa opened her mouth to answer, but the chime from the comm panel by the bay door interrupted her. Frowning, she strode over to the panel and touched a button to activate it. "Yes?"

"This is Private Franklin. I have a group of people out here requesting entry. One is a Captain Graza and the others are the work crew finishing modifications and repairs," the young man reported.

"One moment," Anyssa said. She walked out of the hold and over to the starboard airlock.

Once the inner and outer doors were open, Captain Graza stepped inside and got out of the way as the work crew filed in to pick up where they left off. Anyssa advised them that Teelana was in her cabin freshening up so they would have to wait until she was done. The detail leader didn't mind since there was plenty of work in other areas still to do to keep them busy.

"I have a nice mix of entrées coming shortly from the galley. I'd appreciate it if you would let the people in when it's delivered," Graza said to Franklin.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll key the comm when they arrive," Franklin promised.

Graza nodded and followed Anyssa into the hold.

Frost had his outer shirt off and was busy cleaning the barrel of the fifty-caliber rifle he had used during the last battle. He had put more rounds through the weapon in that one engagement than he had in his short career as a Marine sniper. Frost was so familiar with the weapon he could have taken it apart and put it back together in a pitch black room. In fact, that had been part of his personal training.

"What's so funny?" Frost asked, catching Graza's slight smile.

"You just remind me of so many warriors I have seen take such care with their weapons," Graza replied.

"Everyone under Colonel Markson's command has that obsession," Teelana said from the hold entrance. She was still drying her hair with a towel, but saw no need to keep the workers out any longer. She was dressed in another outfit identical to the one she'd been wearing since the start of the mission. She had made about a dozen pairs because she had seen no reason to change it. The sleeveless vest was blue with silver trim, silver patches on the shoulders, high collar, and a techno falcon adorning the breast with a tiny ruby eye. Teelana's stomach was bare showing off her trim frame. A skirt slit up the left side all the way to the hip hid a bikini bottom, had ragged edges like it had been crudely cut – by design – and settle on her hips with a wide silver belt. A large, oblong ruby formed the hidden buckle on the left hip. A silver armband clung to the right bicep while a matching gauntlet adorned the left forearm. A bone-white compact falcon staff rested in the gauntlet. When needed, the staff could be removed and expanded to its full six-foot length. Hohiro Takamora had trained Teelana in the art of using staff weapons and she had learned to wield the top-heavy falcon staff with deadly efficiency. Instead of the usual fur-capped blue boots with three-inch heels, Teelana chose a pair without heels to give her feet a break.

"Feeling better?" Frost asked. "A shower and a change of clothes usually do wonders."

Teelana's stomach growled. "Yes, however, there are some things a change of clothes can't fix."

"The food should be here anytime now," Graza assured her. "There is enough not only for us, but for repair crew. They usually don't leave until their shift is over, so having an extra large delivery of food wasn't difficult to arrange."

"Why do I get the feeling Adrian will want to take the _Ladyhawke_ out on the test flight when the work is done?" Teelana sighed.

"Boys with toys," Frost grinned. He began reassembling the rifle. Once it checked out, he put the weapon away in the storage case. Frost turned his attention to Adrian's P90 and set about stripping and cleaning it.

"Isn't that how some of the wars on your world got started?" Teelana asked evenly.

"Possibly. It's more likely because of men with power wanted more," Frost answered. "I believe Eternia is just as guilty in that regard."

Satisfied, Teelana found an empty crate, turned it over, and sat down.

"You are awful touchy, Teelana, even for you," Anyssa said, concerned. "Is it because Adrian is in a coma, or that Falcon's damage is beyond your ability to cope with?"

At the mention of her battle suit, Teelana paled considerably. "Oh, no. I-I..left her…"

Anyssa held up the oblong ruby laced with a spider web of cracks. "You've been under a lot of strain."

"Thank you," Teelana said quietly.

The delivery of food arrived in short order. The work detail continued with repairs while group ate. No one spoke much. The euphoria of the successful mission had finally worn if in the face of the fallout. Once everyone's hunger pangs had been satisfied, Frost returned to cleaning the P90. He finished in short order and stored it in the weapons locker where he found it and several energy weapons.

Private Franklin called again. The debriefing team was requesting that Corporal Frost report on board the _Eternia_ right away. Groaning and grumbling something about soulless armchair strategists and second guessers, Frost left the _Ladyhawke_ to report in.

General Hammond arrived minutes after the corporal left. "I figured you would be hiding here," he said to Teelana.

"I haven't been hiding. More like – what do you call it? – keeping a low profile," Teelana said.

"That sounds better. Anyway, the team assigned to effect repairs to Falcon is ready for you in the drop bay. I hope you have figured out what you need to do to activate her."

Teelana nodded. "I have, but I don't like it." She would not elaborate.

Crewman Jaxia and her team arrived at the _Eternia_'s boarding ramp an hour after the meeting with Commander Fontaine. Captain Majourny was waiting for them. The guards requested that they be allowed to examine the equipment Jaxia's team had brought with them before it was allowed on board. Captain Majourny protested, but Jaxia consented, saying that there was nothing in the cases that was volatile. The guards were quick, thorough, and respectful of the Val-kyrie equipment.

Once cleared, Captain Majourny led the group up the ramp and through the corridors to the drop bay in the middle of the ship. The drop bays were located around the ventral gun turret while the main prep and maintenance bay was one deck up. They entered the cavernous bay through the starboard doors.

Jaxia marveled at the simplicity of the design. The locker room and armory were along the forward bulkhead. The ordinance and fuel bays were in the starboard aft section and the vehicle bay was in the port aft corner. Simple, yet powerful, overhead lift struts raised and lowered the dropships into the drop bays. The strut arms were also attached to an overhead railing system to allow for the transfer of the dropships around the bay. Currently, all four ships sat on their landing struts with the lift arms retracted to the ceiling.

The captain led them between the parked lines of dropships to the far side of the bay. It became clear that the interior dimensions were offset to allow vehicles to be driven around to a limited degree within the bay. It also allowed for the setting up of the charging stations in the forward section on the starboard side for the Guardian battle suits.

Jaxia stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of three of the four-meter-tall battle suits. Recovering from her awe, the crewman slowly approached the first one in line. Gatling Arm appeared not to take notice of her presence, though she suspected all three suits knew when someone was in the bay. The green lenses of eyes were dark, but that didn't mean much. Hesitantly, Jaxia reached out a hand to touch the cold alloy of the left leg.

"Impressive, da?" Sonya Borodni said from over by the next suit in line.

"Yes, they are. We've been taught stories about all six of the Guardians, but no one really ever thought they would see even one in their lifetime," Jaxia said, backing away.

"They will not bite, though Gatling Arm's operator is different story," Sonya said, "You are the technician we were told was coming to fix Falcon?"

Jaxia nodded. She introduced herself and her four team members. The others were busy unpacking their equipment in the open space between Hawk and Gatling Arm. Lieutenant Rodney Santana, _Eternia_'s chief engineer, watched with interest as the Val-kyrie team examined the charging station. Rodney had several of his people standing by to answer questions or to assist.

"All the suits are differentiated by the exterior armor, however, underneath all that the suits are identical," Jaxia explained. "I would like to use Hawk in the attempt to repair Falcon."

"Is this a chick thing?" Jeromy Ironwood asked. He had just finished inspecting Blitzkrieg.

"Do not mind him," Sonya said. "He's British."

Jaxia had no idea what the woman meant by that, but Jeromy's accent was different from Sonya's. The appearance of Claw's operator did not help any. If the British and Russian accents made it difficult for Jaxia to understand them, Brad's German accent only made things worse to the point that Jaxia had to take precious time to sort things out. Sonya shooed the men away so that the young crewman could concentrate on only one accent.

"They can be annoying, but they do hold their own in a battle," Sonya replied. "Now, what do you need from Hawk?"

While her crew set about trying to adapt the power couplings to the charging stations Captain Majourny's crew intended to use for the battle suits, Jaxia walked over to the station meant for Falcon to set up the holographic device. She went through the same presentation she had used earlier to explain her theory. Sonya appeared to be attentive; however, she did display the odd behavior of seemingly listening to someone else at the same time.

"Are you all right?" Jaxia asked when she finished her briefing.

"Da," Sonya replied. "That means 'yes' in my native language. The battle suits have the ability to project avatars in the form of what we assume to be their former operators. However, we don't know if we can see the avatar of any suit other than the one we operate. Hawk was confirming or expanding on what you were just explaining." Jaxia frowned, looking around. "Only the operator can see the avatar," Sonya added.

"That must make things awkward," Jaxia said.

"Oh, nyet. Everyone knows we are already crazy," Sonya smiled. She looked at Hawk and conversed with the suit in her mind.

The panels Jaxia wanted to see opened on Hawk's backpack. Her crew rushed over to examine the power receptacle on the lower left side, but they stopped short of actually touching the suit. Word had gotten around quickly about the incident in the medical bay when War Wing shocked one of Garan's med techs. Rumor had it the paralysis would wear off in another day or two.

"It is all right. Hawk knows you need to examine her parts to see if your parts will work," Sonya assured them. "She will allow you to do your work as long as you do not try to remove anything without her permission."

For the next few hours Jaxia's team working on adapting the power couplings to the Earth technology. There were a few teething problems getting the couplings to mate with the power cables from the charging stations. Once sorted out, the couplings were attached to Hawk, Blitzkrieg, and Claw to test out the link. Adjusting the frequency of the power output from the charging unit to the battle suit proved to be the biggest headache. While the suits could accommodate a small range of frequencies, getting the charging unit tuned to a frequency in that range required hardware modifications. Rodney's people completed the changes in record time.

At Sonya's direction, Hawk's armor split at seams that formed where needed, the six-pointed star on the chest swung upward, and the remaining plates opened on hidden hinges to reveal the operator's compartment. Only a few on Gabe Burns' staff had ever seen the inside of a Guardian. There were assumptions made about the dimensions of the compartment, but nothing was concrete.

Sonya climbed up convenient foot holds in the left leg and swung over into the upright couch. Her legs extended down into Hawk's upper legs while the rest of her body was contained in the battle suit's torso. It had been suspected that the operator's head was up in the head of the suit, but that just did not physically work anymore than extending their arms into the suit's upper arms. Sonya located the power control panel on her right and touched several buttons. Indicators for the external power flow lit up and the internal capacitor was bypassed since it was at full charge. After a battle, the charging unit would supply power to both the capacitor and the suit's systems.

Rodney waited expectantly in front of Hawk. When Sonya gave him a thumbs-up, the chief engineer beamed, "Looks like we have a winner. Let's get the rest of these stations set up starting with the one for Falcon."

Captain Majourny had been lurking quietly in the back the entire time waiting for this moment. "How long until you are ready for the Sorceress?"

"Give us an hour and we'll be ready. Now that we know what the configuration is we'll have no trouble setting up all the other stations," Rodney answered.

Jo-jo nodded and pulled out her communicator and called General Hammond to update him.

Teelana and Anyssa parted company with General Hammond outside the drop bay.

"The Guardians are legends to my people," Anyssa said. "Now that the battle suits have been recovered and the ancient prophecy is coming true, many would give almost anything for just a glimpse of one of the suits."

Teelana sighed. "If this Jaxia can repair Falcon, that is all I am concerned with. So what are you saying?"

"Meeting a Guardian is one thing. Meeting the Sorceress of Grayskull is something else. Meeting a suit operator who is both?" Anyssa shook her head. "Well, all I can say is be gentle."

Teelana wasn't in the mood. Her only concern was for Falcon. After Falcon was safe, Teelana would make all the time in the world for Jaxia and any other wishing to know more about her, Grayskull, or the Guardians.

Anyssa followed Teelana into the bay. A medical team was already present on the far side in front of the open space reserved for Falcon. Captain Majourny, Colonel Markson, and an engineering crew were also present. Several Val-kyrie were examining power couplings making sure they were in working order.

Jaxia broke away from the collection of engineers when she realized who was approaching. Teelana groaned inwardly. She wasn't in the mood right now for starry-eyed people honored to meet such a revered figure. Teelana listened politely as Jaxia rambled on greeting and introducing her crew from the battlestar's engineering crew. Anyssa came to her rescue when it became clear that Teelana was on the verge of saying something unkind.

They got down to business after that because Teelana knew Falcon was running out of time. A maintenance stand was wheeled over. It was the kind on spring-loaded wheels. Put weight on it and the springs compressed so that the stand would come to rest on the legs and stay in place. Sonya would need it to get up into Falcon's operator's compartment, activate the power grid, and extract Teelana.

Moving into position so that Falcon would be where the engineers wanted her, Teelana said, "I don't know what kind of shape I'll be in. I have never done this before so I'm not sure what to expect. I will have to use a portion of my life force to activate Falcon."

"Sounds dangerous," Jeromy said.

"It is, but I don't have much choice."

"Well, wait a minute," Jeromy said, hands waving Teelana off from activating the crystal she clutched in her hands. "Falcon's main function is to augment your magical power, right?"

"Yes, but she can't do that in the state she's in," Teelana answered, irritation starting to creep into her features.

"The AI is shut down, but can't you still use the magic amplifier abilities; you know, pull power so you wouldn't have to use much of your life force to activate Falcon"

It took a moment to register, but Teelana finally realized what Brad was driving at. Sonya made a rude remark about bizarre ideas, but Teelana countered her.

"No, he's right," Teelana said, impressed.

Brad and Sonya said in unison, "He is?"

Jeromy said at the same time, "I am?"

Teelana nodded. "I can activate the primary functions without the artificial intelligence. I just wonder why I didn't think of it earlier."

"Well, you do have a lot on your mind," Brad suggested.

Jeromy said to Sonya, "Betcha didn't think I had it in me, did you?"

"Nyet, I did not," Sonya agreed, much to Jeromy's dismay.

"You didn't have to agree so quickly," Jeromy groused.

With everyone ready and waiting, Teelana moved into position, clutched the cracked crystal to her breast, closed her eyes, and concentrated on her task. She opened herself to the magical flows of energy permeating the galaxy. Teelana began drawing it in out of reflex after long years of doing so for countless reasons. It was automatic. This allowed her to focus more of her concentration upon activating Falcon's magic amplification system. All sounds around her faded away as Teelana focused on the system schematic that suddenly appeared in her mind's eye. Locating the amplification system was not hard as it was the primary weapon system of the battle suit. Activating the system proved to be something of a chore, however.

Beads of sweat formed on Teelana's forehead from the strain. A soft white glow from the magic she had drawn in formed around her. With the power approaching the saturation point, the point at which her body could not absorb anymore magical energies, Teelana had no alternative. Releasing the magic at the same moment she gave up a bit of her life force, Teelana forced the amplification system into activation.

The results were dramatic and left everyone watching slack-jawed.

The crystal disappeared as the armor activated into the combat-mode powered suit. Bands and plates of Etherium alloy snapped out into place in the span of seconds to engulf Teelana. Almost as soon as that transformation was complete, the next phase began. The armored figure was lifted off the deck as more Etherium plates and structures formed and took their proper place in the battle suit's battle-mode configuration. In moments, the familiar four-meter tall form of Guardian Falcon stood where Teelana had been.

Engineers pushed the maintenance stand up instantly. Once in place, Sonya rushed up the steps, climbed up on the suit's right side, and probed in a specific location with her left hand until she located the release switch. Sonya found the lever and pulled it. Just had been demonstrated earlier on Hawk, seams formed in smooth surfaces, plates opened, the six-pointed star on the chest swung upward as more panels moved out of the way. In the operator's compartment stood an unconscious Teelana buckled into the vertical couch dressed in the long skirt with the jagged slit up to the left hip and vest she had been wearing when she had entered the bay.

Ignoring Teelana for the moment, Sonya located the power system control panel and status board. There was an alarming number of red lights that would normally be green. Sonya touched the button to open the receptacle for the external power coupling. One of Lieutenant Santana's crew appeared at the base of the stand and informed her that the panel was open on the backpack. The conduit was locked into place and Sonya was given the go ahead to close the path to send power from the charging station into the suit's capacitor. Sonya held her breath as she closed the switches. For a moment nothing happened, then other panels began to light as the battle suit came to life. The adjustments made using the other suits to experiment with paid off.

Sonya found the most important display next to the power control panel; the status of the AI. Everything showed normal condition. Falcon was going to make it. Now all they had to do was get the auto-repair system going the fix the damage to the Falcon's backpack.

Engineers pulled the three conduits out of the lower right side of Hawk's backpack and dragged the one-inch diameter cables over to Falcon. Sonya hit the switch to open the same port on Falcon's backpack. The outer section of the recess contained an identical collection of three cables. To the left of that were three ports to plug in the cables from another suit.

The order of the color coded cables from right to left were green, blue and red. The plugs were colored right to left red, blue and green. The engineers plugs the cables into the proper ports and stepped back.

_Okay,_ Sonya thought to Hawk, who made her presence felt to her operator. _Engage your auto-repair system and let us see if this works._

_Activating,_ Hawk replied. There was a pause as Hawk linked herself to the stricken Falcon. _I have a good connection. I am now taking over for Falcon's systems. Her capacitor is a mess along with the auto-repair system._ Another pause, then, _I have control. Falcon is still in hibernation mode. I recommend that no one sits in the compartment after you remove Teelana. Not even the operator of another Guardian. If Falcon revives suddenly, she could react – badly._

"Da," Sonya muttered. She unsealed pads the shoulder harnesses were threaded through, holding Teelana in place. Waving to the medical team, Sonya backed up out of the way. She cautioned them about the extraction. Under no circumstances were any of them to sit in the couch if it should become necessary to get in behind the unconscious woman.

The techs nodded their understanding and set to work. Two men straddled the edge of the stand and the operator's compartment while a third man stood in the middle. The outside men slid Teelana's arms out of the harness, took a firm grip, and pulled the woman up and out. An operator was practically standing up in the suit already, so the extraction was not complicated. The third man took Teelana across his shoulders and settled her limp form in the fireman's carry, and carefully backed down the steps to the deck. His companions followed to assist getting Teelana onto the waiting gurney. The trio consulted a medical scanner to assess Teelana's condition before moving her further.

"Well," Captain Majourny prodded. After seeing the horrific damage done to Falcon's backpack capacitor and thruster units, she hoped Teelana wouldn't end up in a similar condition.

"She's alive," the lead medtech responded. "Vital signs are low, but steady."

"Is she in a coma?" Colonel Markson asked.

The tech shook his head. "More like a deep sleep than a coma. Since the operator's and suits are connected in a way we don't pretend to understand, it makes sense that Teelana's condition would mimic that of her suit's, especially after what Teelana just did."

The techs wheeled the gurney out heading for the sick bay while engineering teams continued to evaluation Falcon. Jaxia and her people were beside themselves being in the presence of the legendary battle suits. Sonya monitored Falcon's status panels being careful not to sit in the couch. It was awkward, but no one really wanted to find out what could happen if Falcon woke up to find someone else in the operator's space who wasn't Teelana.

Seeing that the current crisis was over, Captain Majourny and Colonel Markson left the bay. Until Falcon was repaired, only those currently in the bay were authorized to be present. Colonel Markson wasn't happy with having the dropship pilots and his platoons barred from being able to perform their routine maintenance on their equipment, but Jo-jo promised him that it wouldn't be more than a day or so. It wasn't like they were going into battle soon.

She hoped.

10


	6. Ch 4

FOUR

Val-kyrie Battlestar _Logoss_

Enroute to Home System

13 July 2017

"You did _not_ quote a James Bond film in the middle of a battle," the debriefer, Lieutenant Jacobs, admonished Corporal Frost.

"Well, the battle hadn't begun yet," Frost countered.

"So you and Cobretti figured a few quotes, some explosives and falling rocks would stop a massive Horde ground force?" Jacobs asked evenly.

"Quoting movies and television shows calms us down; puts things into perspective. As for the rocks, well, any damage done before the battle started was a plus," Frost explained. The debriefing was only a few minutes old and he was ready to take one of Dhalon's axes to both Jacobs and his buddy, Lieutenant Smith. Frost had to bite his tongue to keep from making any Agent Smith cracks.

"Did you engage targets?" Lieutenant Smith asked.

Frost snorted. "I _vaporized_ targets."

The debriefing lasted more than two hours during which every action taken during the battle was examined under the microscope. Frost barely kept his professionalism in the face of apparent second-guessing of ever move they made against the Horde forces. These lieutenants had never been in a pitched battle, yet they seemed fit enough to tell Frost what he and the Guardians should have done starting with the _Ladyhawke_ landing on one of _Logoss_' landing bays instead of taking off into space to draw off the pursuing General Rongar.

In hindsight, it probably was a bad call because the _Logoss_ eventually had to return to help extract the stranded Guardians. Considering the firepower a battlestar contained, it really hadn't been as bad as these two debriefers were making it out. Commandeer Fontaine certainly wasn't blaming the Earth people for the resulting damage to her starship.

When the torture was finally over, Frost couldn't get out of the room fast enough. But not before having a parting shot. "You know, there is one accomplishment for science that came out the battle."

The officers shared a dubious look. Lieutenant Jacobs dared to ask, "What?"

"We busted the myth that everyone dies when rocks fall."

The Corporal's dung-eating grin was the last the debriefers saw of him.

Frost's first destination had been the dropship hangar where the Guardian armor was stored. He was surprised to find several members of Delta platoon on guard outside the blast doors. Captain's orders that no one but the engineering crews from the _Eternia_ and _Logoss_ could come and go for the next twenty-four hours. They had no information about the status of Falcon. They did know whatever had happened had put the Sorceress in the sick bay. Since Frost wasn't getting into the hangar bay anytime soon, he decided to wander off in the direction of the sick bay. Frost half expected there to be a guard on the sick bay and mildly surprised to find no one on station outside.

Lieutenant Commander Emilio Carter came out of his office when Frost entered. "Can I help you?"

"Well, I'm tempted to recite Adrian's psychiatrist comment, but it never comes off as well for me as it does for him," Frost replied. "I heard the Sorceress was here."

"Yes, she was brought in an hour ago," Doctor Carter said, leading the way into the patient bay. The only occupant, several beds down on the left, was the Sorceress. "Is she still calling herself Teelana?"

Frost nodded. "Until she returns to the castle. Apparently, spells to change her appearance wouldn't cut it for the mission." He eyed the monitors above the bed, but had no idea how to read the instruments. "Is she in a coma?"

"No. Although it's hard to tell from the monitors, it seems to be more like a deep sleep," the doctor explained. "Several of the indicators have risen slightly since she was brought in."

"I wonder if that matches up with Falcon's repairs. I can only presume Falcon is being fixed since I can't get into the hangar."

Carter's eyes widened. "I hadn't thought of that. Kind of embarrassing, really, since Susan and I have been studying the apparent symbiotic relationship between the battle suit and its operator." Mentioning Guardian Command's chief medical officer brought another item to Emilio's mind. He walked back into his office just off to the left of the sick bay entrance and picked up a data pad. "I'll have to see if the engineers can keep a timeline as the Sorceress' suit is repaired and match that up to her bio readings. As it stands now, she'll wake up whenever she is so inclined."

"She mentioned having to do something pretty drastic to get Falcon back into her battle-mode," Frost said, eyes never leaving the sleeping woman. "I don't know what it involved, but if her deep sleep could be mistaken for a coma, it probably wasn't something Teelana would do if she had another option."

"Well, I can assure you that she is in no danger of dying," Carter said confidently.

Frost nodded. He knew he wouldn't be allowed to stand watch here of in the _Logoss_' medical bay because he had already done his time and there were other duties for him to perform now that he was back with his platoon. "I guess it's a good opportunity to observe the relationship between person and machine. Neither is very talkative about it."

The doctor nodded in agreement.

Frost thanked the doctor for his time and left the sick bay. With nowhere else really to go, Frost headed for the barracks area one deck up.

The entire command was housed in the same space even though it was divided up into four areas, each assigned to a platoon. The officers had their own quarters in each platoon bay, to be close to the people they were responsible for. Every effort had been made to make each soldier's space as private as possible short of giving everyone their own quarters. Hard walls sectioned off each living space containing a desk, bed and closet. There was no door to completely close the space off, but people tended to respect a fellow's space, especially when someone just wanted to be left alone for a while.

Frost found his home away from home, entered and switched on the lights. It was a standard arrangement with a blank wall on the right, a small desk with a mirror and a chair were on the left close to the entrance. A bed was on the other side of the divider between it and the desk, also on the left. The closet was at the back with the only other door in the room. The corporal pulled out the chair and sat down. Some of the scattered posters and pictures affixed to the wall were reflected in the mirror, but what drew his attention was a photo tucked into edge on the right side of the mirror. He plucked the photo from its place and held it up.

The picture had been taken about a month after returning from the mission to the sanctuary moon to recover the battle suits. The four people pictured were now unofficially known as the Four Musketeers. From left to right they were Frost, Jake Rockwell, the Sorceress and Adrian Cobretti. There were only four copies of the photo, with each one in the possession of those in the picture.

Now, two of those in the picture were in sick bay.

Frost put the picture back into place, wedged in the mirror's metal frame, and plucked out the one above it. This one was of Frost and Adrian in the main underground hangar in front of the battle suits. It was a tight frame on just the two of them in their respective uniforms; Frost in the standard Marine battle dress uniform and Adrian in the black and gray jumpsuit designed for the Guardian battle suit operators. As with the other picture, there were only two copies existing, each owned by the Frost and Adrian. Frost turned it over a read what was printed on the back.

WE FIGHT TOGETHER, WE DIE TOGETHER. BAD BOYS FOR LIFE.

Antone would never forget that moment on top of the pyramid on the sanctuary moon when War Wing appeared, diverting the attention of a battle drone away from shooting Frost with its railgun to make futile attempts at shooting the Etherium-armored battle suit. The appearance saved his life. After that, he made sure to make friends with Adrian and not let the man's bizarre ability to transform into whatever form he wished scare him off. Others thought Frost was crazy to hang around Adrian so much, but Frost knew the only ones who had to be afraid of Adrian's abilities were Guardian Command's enemies.

Frost returned the picture to its place and sat back.

"They're in good hands," Colonel Markson said.

Frost twisted his head around to regard his commanding officer. The colonel was dressed in sweatpants and a tee shirt. He was holding onto the ends of a towel draped around his neck. Apparently, Markson had just finished a workout in the exercise room just down the corridor from the barracks area.

"I don't suppose there's any chance of returning my weapons to the armory in the hangar bay, is there?"

Markson shook his head. "Not until tomorrow. Sonya figures Falcon should be repaired enough for her own repair system to take over. Then the hangar will be opened up again."

"So what are we to do in the meantime?" Frost asked.

The colonel shrugged his shoulders. "Enjoy the downtime. We're just along for the ride while the _Logoss_ attempts to get home."

Frost raised a questioning eyebrow. "Attempts?"

Markson explained about the damage the battlestar sustained in the battle with the Horde. The Val-kyrie crew was attempting to nurse the hyperdrive along until the ship was within range of their home system for one last jump that would hopefully end with coming out within, or on the edge of, the solar system.

"I thought these battlestars were tougher than that," Frost said. He made mental note to ask Anyssa about that later.

"According to Hammond, the Val-kyrie got confirmation that our old pal, General Rongar, had his flagship outfitted with experimental weapons," Markson replied.

"Yeah, I kind got that feeling, seeing that walking cannon platform Adrian managed to destroy. I'm not sure I want to find out what other goodies they have waiting to be deployed."

"Whatever they are, we'll handle them. It's what we do."

"Even we have our limits. So do the Guardians," Frost said soberly.

Markson nodded and turned to walk away. He stopped after only one step. "Did you and Adrian really quote a James Bond flick before setting off the explosives?"

Frost looked surprised. "How did you-"

"Hammond told me," the colonel answered. "So, is it true?"

"Yeah, it's true."

Markson nodded. "Sweet. By the way, Dhalon is sharpening his axes. Figured you might want to know."

"Don't tempt me, colonel. After that debriefing, I may have found Adrian's definition for justifiable homicide," Frost warned.

At the door to his office/quarters at the far end, the colonel made a parting comment: "Take number and get in line." He entered his quarters without another word.

Grinning, Frost got up and left his quarters, headed for the aft part of the barracks bay. There was a workshop there where soldiers could work on their weapons. If Dhalon was anywhere, it would be there.

Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

Unclaimed System

It had taken longer than expected, but General Rongar's plan actually did work. Sort of. A salvage crew had to cut structural members from other parts of the ship where redundant pieces could be taken with further compromising the space frame. Those pieces were then welded in place to stabilize the damaged areas. The hope was that the structure would be stable enough to withstand maneuvering on the sublight engines. After eighteen hours of back breaking work, they were ready to try turning the ship around.

The main engines were fired up with no issues. Thruster banks, some of them welded in place where the originals had been destroyed, were fired to gradually bring the starship to a halt. What structural monitoring systems that still functioned indicated that the ship was stable. So, they progressed to the next step. Now that the _Hoscar_ was pointed back in the direction of the planet, Captain Dragnar could fire the main engines and get the ship going back toward the Horde reinforcements he hoped were still in the system. Since the sensor systems had been totally destroyed, there was no way to know for sure. Communications were barely functional. The short-range system was so short that even at visual range there was no guarantee that contact could be made.

Dragnar seated himself at the helm console, took a deep breath and touched the controls to light off the engines. An alarming vibration quickly built up in the deck plates, but it settled down to a steady thrumming. The initial test after Sagan and the engineers got the sub light drives functioning panicked everyone into thinking they were going to explode. Sagan said it was because the space frame was so damaged that the usual nuances inherent in the ship had been altered. It was as if the _Hoscar_ was a brand new ship whose personality had yet to evolve. In a way, this was true because there was so much structure missing that the battleship was no longer the same ship they knew.

All Dragnar cared about, as the main engines wound up to fifteen percent thrust, was that the ship held together, and the engines didn't explode. The chief engineer had advised against pushing the power above twenty-five percent because he couldn't guarantee anything. So Dragnar held the engines back. After all the struggles up to this point to keep the living crew members alive, it wouldn't do to finish the job for the Val-kyire by getting anxious.

Although the ship couldn't navigate without the sensors, Dragnar and Rongar had used the sensor readings from the general's flight to look over the damage to extrapolate the _Hoscar_'s position by the star fields that had been visible in some of the scans. The calculations had been very rough, but if they could get the battleship moving, any Horde vessels still in the system might just pick up the activity on their sensors and come take a look.

The battleship's navigation system was fried, but Sagan managed to jury rig a patch from the scout ship in the hangar to one of the few functioning panels left on the helm station. Dragnar consulted it religiously to make sure the stricken vessel continued in the right direction. So far the patchwork of controls for the attitude thrusters and engines was holding up. Once on course, Dragnar eased off on the main engine output. This was a good move because as the structure began settling in, reports started coming in to the bridge of possible fatigue fractures in the reinforced areas. That did not bode well if they were to have any chance of getting the ship towed through hyperspace back to a shipyard for repair.

It took an agonizing amount of time to make any headway back in the direction of the habitable planet. They were making progress according to the link to the scout mek's navigation computer. Captain Dragnar knew it would be slow going, but it still chaffed his nerves. He supposed he should be happy to have survived an engagement with a Val-kyrie battlestar, and he was, but the damage to his warship was distressing. Dragnar continued to worry about getting his ship home when in the back of his mind there was the ever present kernel of doubt that such a feat might even be possible.

"Stop worrying," General Rongar chastised lightly. "Thinking about what could happen won't help. Worry about it when the time comes."

"I didn't hear you sneak in," Dragnar retorted. "And you said you were rusty."

Smiling, the general sat down in one of the few vacant seats that hadn't been destroyed on the port side of the bridge. "It only seems that way when you are so preoccupied."

"Well, you certainly don't seem concerned," the captain growled. His frustration over the whole situation was starting to show.

"Considering the fact that we should be an expanding cloud of particles right now, every moment just being alive is a plus," Rongar pointed out. "We're heading in the right direction; at least, I think we are, so stop worrying."

"Oh, good. I'd hate to worry over nothing," Dragnar said sarcastically.

Time continued to drag by as the battered warship drew inexorably closer to its destination. It was maddening because none of the visual systems functioned so there was no way to see what was outside the ship except to go out in one of the few remaining bat mek craft. Dragnar resisted using them because the craft might be needed to evacuate as many of the living crew as possible should the need arise.

After hours of travel, Captain Dragnar started to believe that they might actually make it. That's when he noticed the speed indicator dropping. The engine output was unchanged at ten percent of the maximum rating, but the speed continued to fall. With the internal comm system unreliable, the crew was forced to use portable communicators. Dragnar grabbed his from where is rested on an inoperative panel and keyed it on. A quick discussion with the chief engineer yielded little. The engines were functioning and producing thrust, but the chief engineer could not account for the drop in velocity.

Reports started coming in to General Rongar of unusual activity near the airlock on the port side, forward quarter. The sounds did not make any sense. There were bangs, scrapping of metal- on-metal and indications of equipment moving around. There was nothing and no one in that area to account for the activity. As far as they knew, there were no other ships in the area.

"You don't think another vessel has found us and is attempting to dock and investigate, do you" Dragnar asked Rongar.

The general rose from his seat and ordered up a trooper security detail to the airlock. Captain Dragnar wanted to go along, but Rongar suggested that he stay put just in case something went wrong. Dragnar didn't like it, but Rongar's logic made sense. So he remained on the bridge and waited while the General went to greet whoever was trying to enter his ship. By now it was clear that someone had found them and was attempting to dock. The temptation to order a bat mek launch was almost overwhelming; however, if the _Hoscar_ appeared to be a derelict powering unguided through space, it would be best to maintain that illusion.

The wait was agonizing. With many of the control consoles dead, there was no way for Dragnar to monitor what was happening at the airlock. He picked up the comm unit several times to call Rongar, but stopped himself each time. It wouldn't do to distract the man if the ship was about to be invaded by hostiles.

The waiting finally got the better of Dragnar and he keyed the comm link. Before he could say a word, Rongar's voice issued from the tiny speaker. "It's all right, captain. You'll never believe what we found. I'm on the way back to the bridge now." The channel closed without another word.

Captain Dragnar did not believe it. Not only had they gotten the stricken battleship powered up to the point of being able to survive; not only had they gotten the main engines running and the ship pointed in what they had hoped was the right direction; they almost collided with a Horde cruiser that had been sent out to investigate the low power emissions the group of warships scanned upon dropping out of hyperspace.

The cruiser had to use its powerful magnetic beams to divert the _Hoscar_'s flight path to avoid a nasty collision, and then slowed the ship down enough to attempt a safe linkup. Captain Gorzen, commander of the Horde cruiser _Drescos_, did not expect to see anyone alive. He had expected the find only the robot crew still functioning. Then again, the thought that a crew of troopers managing what General Rongar and Captain Dragnar accomplished when the Horde purposely programmed their robot army with only limited intelligence and autonomy was pretty farfetched. Although it wasn't known, many commanders, captains and generals suspected the reasons went all the way back to when Horde Prime first began his war to conquer the galaxy.

Imagine Gorzen's surprise to be greeted at the airlock by a squad of troopers and the commander of the Fifth Fleet. Once the greetings had been taken care of on the bridge, Captain Gorzen began preparations for the transfer of the _Hoscar_ survivors to the _Drescos_.

"Absolutely not, captain," Dragnar protested.

"Look, I know how fond you are of this ship, captain. However, I don't think it will survive a tow through hyperspace to the nearest shipyard for repair," Gorzen pointed out. "Better to scuttle it so that our enemies don't gain an advantage through salvage."

"Not an option," Dragnar said. He held up a hand to stall Gorzen's objection. "We have survived an encounter with a Val-kyrie battlestar. There is valuable sensor data stored in the computer core. We can't get power to the primary core and are currently operating on the backup. Removing the primary core is not an option, either, because that requires a repair dock. You see the picture I'm drawing for you, captain?"

Gorzen did though he didn't like it.

More warships were called in to form up around the _Hoscar_. The other captains were going to attempt something that all the manuals said was possible, but the actual practice proved to be far from easy. It was, in fact, quite dangerous. The process was simple: link up to the stricken ship with magnetic beams and make a synchronized jump into hyperspace. It was the alternate method when a tug was unavailable. The only time it had been attempted all the vessels involved had been lost. That explained why the other starship captains were not happy about the attempt.

The fleet formed up around the shattered battleship. Sagan supervised the operation every step of the way. General Rongar overruled every objection put forth by the other captains. If this operation was to have any chance at succeeding, Sagan was the one who could make it happen. He had made the study of the first attempt disaster a personal project and Sagan was sure he knew why they had failed.

Gorzen's face appeared once more on one of the few functional bridge screens. "General Rongar, I must protest. Your chief scientist's plan for getting the _Hoscar_ to the nearest dry dock will kill us all."

Rongar reigned in his annoyance and screwed on an impassive face. "Your objection is noted. Again. Now shut up and do what Sagan's plan calls for. He assures me that this plan will work."

Gorzen opened his mouth to protest, but Rongar cut him off. "You can always report directly to Horde Prime as to why the only warship to survive an engagement with a Val-kyrie battlestar did not make it back with vital sensor data on their capabilities. I hear the ice mines of the Penal Planet Xatcres are almost tolerable this time of year."

"At least I'll have the pleasure of knowing that if this fails, none of us will make it back," Gorxen growled and signed off.

Rongar and Dragnar exchanged bemused looks. Rongar turned to his friend. "I sure hope you're right about this, Sagan."

Although covered from head to foot in grim and soot, Sagan still had high spirits. "I have made this sort of maneuver a personal project. I know this will work. All those captains have to do is follow the plan as I have laid it out."

Another hour of intense work saw the completion of an improvised slave control console for the synchronized hyperspace jump. Sagan theorized that the previous attempt failed due to each ship's pilot having to time the jump with the other vessels in the fleet. Sagan's plan was to slave all the towing ships to one console and use the computers to make the synchronous jump. Sagan plugged in the last few connectors and got wearily to his feet. Saying a silent prayer, he touched a switch to activate the console. When nothing happened, Sagan feared that he hooked something up wrong due to fatigue. He was considering options when indicators suddenly started lighting up.

Relieved, the scientist set about making the connections to the four warships that would tow the stricken battleship to the nearest dry dock. Per General Rongar's orders, each ship captain had made open links available for Sagan to access each computer. One by one, the computers from the four other ships where linked up to Sagan's jury-rigged station, which was in turn connected to a spare engineering computer core. Everything was going as planned. The real test would be the jump into hyperspace.

"All computers accessed and synchronized. All indicators are green," Sagan reported. He checked the readings one more time. "Everything is ready, general."

"Proceed," Rongar ordered.

7


	7. Ch 5

Five

Val-kyrie Battlestar _Logoss_

Enroute to Home System

15 July 2017

Chief medical officer Garan had spent the better part of two days processing the refugees from the penal planet. They had to be moved out of the starboard landing bay so that the Bladewing squadrons could conduct operations against the Horde. That meant moving the people into the main maintenance bay located in a structure on the battlestar's ventral centerline. The tunnel connecting the landing bays passed through the bay making the transfer easy.

Now that the ship was well on its way home, the people had to be relocated yet again so that the ground crews and support personnel could repair and service the fighters. Several hundred people milling about only got in the way. Most of them had already been moved into other areas of the ship like unused quarters and storage bays temporarily converted into sleeping quarters. The worst cases were now being transferred to the med lab for further treatment.

He-man objected to the whole situation – big surprise there – and took his complaints straight to the commander. Commander Fontaine pointedly informed him that he, and anyone else who wished to leave, would be loaded into a long-range scout ship and returned to penal planet Hel.

He-man immediately ceased complaining.

He made a pest of himself in the med lab, instead. When Angella was brought in, He-man hovered watching every move the techs made.

Sergeant Apone was back on shift watching over Adrian. Doctor Garan evaluated the man's current health, as she always did at the start of her shift, and informed Apone that Adrian could wake up at any time. So, the Gunnery Sergeant perched on a stool several feet away from the foot of Adrian's bed out of the way, yet watching everything going on. He shook his head at the annoying presence of He-man. The man was definitely not living up to all the hype. He suppressed wondering if the mission to rescue the surviving Masters had been worth it. The Sorceress had thought it necessary and that was good enough for Apone.

"Hey, Blonde, why don't you give it a rest and let these people do their jobs?" Apone growled, fed up with He-man's attitude.

He-man gestured to Angella. "That woman is a friend of my sister's. I don't want anything to happen to her. She's been through enough already."

"You got a funny way of showing your appreciation," Apone said.

"So we should be grateful that you rescued us from that planet? Maybe worship the ground you walk on because of it?" He-man snapped.

Sliding off the stool, the grizzled Marine stood nose-to-nose with He-man. "I doubt you'd want to worship the things I have done in my career. I don't give a damn how you feel about being rescued. Like it or not, the Sorceress said you were worth the risk. While I have my doubts, she has none. You may want to keep that in mind."

Before He-man could say anything, a new voice spoke up.

"If you two are going to throw down, kindly take it somewhere else. There are sick people trying to sleep here."

Both men turned their attention to the bed and its occupant. He-man looked annoyed at the interruption while Apone broke into a wide grin and laughed.

"I guess this is myth confirmed," Adrian Cobretti said, slowly. "You really can wake the dead."

"That's what you get for doubting my abilities," Apone replied.

Garan turned over her examination of Queen Angella to a junior doctor so that she could personally check on Adrian. "You are a very lucky man, Guardian."

"Please, call me Adrian."

"Well, Adrian, your vital signs appear to be all normal." Garan examined the display panel at the head of Adrian's bed.

"There's nothing normal about him, doc," Apone said. He stepped around to Adrian's left and helped him to sit up.

Adrian suppressed a few painful groans, almost passed out once, but he did manage to sit up and remain up without falling over. "And now you know why animals eat their young," Adrian said to Garan.

Garan chuckled. "Personality intact. What happened?"

"Well, there was this crazy Horde commander, who had no idea what he was dealing with courtesy of General Rongar, after my life and that of the Sorceress," Adrian explained. "That reminds me. Could you locate the rest of my clothes? I have to go kill him now."

"You already did that," Apone said.

"Did I?"

Apone nodded. "I heard you blew up that walker machine he was riding in."

"Oh," Adrian said absently. "Was it a pretty explosion?"

"Pretty big, yes."

Adrian tried to stand, but Garan wouldn't allow it. "Before you go anywhere, I want to do an examination to be sure there isn't anything we missed," Garan said. She walked over to a table containing an array of medical equipment, selected a scanning device about twice the size of a deck of cards and returned to the bed. She paused at the head of the bed to consult the readout panel showing the previous examination.

Garan slowly waved the scanner up and down in front of Adrian several times to get a thorough scan. She paused every now and then to change settings or make adjustments to the scan field. When she was finished, the doctor returned to the console to compare the scans to her files.

While the doctor ran her tests, Apone touched a control on the side of the bed to open the drawer underneath. A fresh change of clothes lay within. Adrian noted that the selection was still in keeping with the bounty hunter disguise.

"Hammond's orders," Apone said when he noticed Adrian's inquiring look.

Adrian frowned. "The mission's over."

"Take it up with The Man," Apone said simply.

"So what's the word, doc?" Adrian inquired. He had dressed quickly and was pulling on his boots when Garan finished her review.

"I don't see any reason to keep you here for further observation. I'll have a copy of your medical record transferred to the _Eternia_. I'm sure your own doctor will want to poke and prod you to make sure I did my job right." Garan smiled. "I recommend you take it easy for the next few days, however. While our theory about the symbiotic relationship between battlesuit and operator has been proven, you aren't indestructible." The doctor stared pointedly at the six-pointed medallion hanging from a heavy silver chain around Adrian's neck. The sapphire set in the ring of points glowed brightly with a life of its own.

Adrian nodded. "War Wing has already been reading me the riot act. He also asked me to apologize on his behalf for injuring one of your techs."

Garan smiled again. "No permanent harm was done. We knew immediately after your friend had arrived that – War Wing is it? – had no intention of killing anyone. I'm told the young woman will regain all the feeling in her limbs in another day, or so."

Adrian and Garan clasped forearms; the Val-kyrie version of a handshake on Earth.

"This isn't over," He-man warned Apone the pair headed for the exit.

"Oh, yes it is," Adrian growled back before Apone could say anything. "While you might kick Apone's butt in a fight, I'm ten miles of bad road you don't even want to _think_ about stepping on." He punctuated the warning by transforming his right arm into the syngenor arm and popped out the twin bone claws. "The Sorceress said you're important. Right now, we need Apone a helluva lot more than we need you."

She-ra hurried from the back room at the sounds of the argument between Apone and He-man. She moved to defend her brother when it continued between He-man and Adrian. Seeing how serious the Guardian was about ending it one way or another, She-ra placed a restraining hand on He-man's shoulder.

Adrian retracted the claws and allowed his arm to revert to its natural form. He nodded to Garan and left with Apone at his side.

"I'm really starting to detest that Guardian," He-man growled.

"I would say the feeling is mutual. And you were being more than a pest," She-ra pointed out.

When they were far enough away from the med lab, Apone accused, "You enjoyed that."

Adrian put on his best look of innocence. "Too obvious?"

"Not at all." Apone thought about his encounter with the so-called 'Most Powerful Man in the Universe.' "I could have taken him."

"More likely, He-man wouldn't be in any shape to enjoy his victory," Adrian countered. "I need you. Not another corkscrew." He suddenly stopped walked and faced Apone. "Someone was missing in the med lab."

"C'mon," Apone said, starting off down the corridor again. "I'll fill you in on what's happened."

Adrian was shocked to learn that he had been out for three days. War Wing continued to heal him after the major surgery had been completed by Chief Surgeon Fravo. The Sorceress maintained her cover as Teelana and stayed by Adrian's bed side as long as she could until something urgent came up.

Apone didn't have all the details, and what he did know, he barely understood. Falcon had been damaged a lot worse than originally thought. The battlesuit had been losing power ever since the battle on the unclaimed planet. According to Frost, the Sorceress had to do something pretty drastic in order to get Falcon reverted to battle-mode. She succeeded, but the cost put her in the _Eternia_'s sick bay. She had been there ever since.

After a Val-kyrie engineering team adapted the power stations in the drop bay to the battlesuits, a link was set up between Hawk and Falcon to use Hawk's repair functions to fix Falcon's damage. Once the procedure had been established and found to be working, Captain Majourny declared the drop bay off limits to everyone except the other Guardians and the Val-kyrie team until such time as Falcon was out of danger of the artificial intelligence perishing. There was no telling how long that would take, and no one was speaking about the progress.

Adrian, of course, had a way of finding out. All the battlesuits could communicate with one another independently of their operators, but War Wing was presently more concerned with his operator because he could do nothing for Falcon. He refused to contact the other suits until he was satisfied that his operator wasn't going to do anything stupid resulting in some sort of relapse.

"Which brings us to the long journey to the Val-kyrie home world," Apone said as they entered the Alpha landing bay. Adrian needed a rest, so the pair found a place where they wouldn't be in the way perched on some metal storage containers up against a bulkhead.

Technicians went about their duties servicing fighters, moving parts and supplies around, and other general upkeep of the vehicles stored in the bay. Bladewing fighters were lined up facing the outboard bulkhead, specifically, the launch tubes. These were the mission capable craft armed and ready for battle, recon missions, escort duty; whatever was needed.

A peculiar thing that Adrian noticed during the walk from the med lab continued to happen in the bay. Every Val-kyrie passing by looked at him a little longer than normal. In the corridors, they stood aside for him and Apone until they had passed before pressing on with their assigned duties. It was as if they were celebrities on board the starship. No, it was Adrian who seemed to be the celebrity.

"Have you noticed how everyone we pass looks at me like I'm something special?" Adrian asked Apone.

"Yes," Apone nodded. "The others have been complaining about similar occurrences."

"That's because you are celebrities," a voice said from their right.

Adrian struggled to get to his feet, but the woman waved him back down, introducing herself as Captain Graza. She had led the squad that provided aerial support during the fighting on the unclaimed planet. And she was the one who had talked the Sorceress through her first landing approach.

"The Guardians are legends among my people. After the time when the suits were placed in stasis for the memory engrams of their previous operators to evolve into sentience, we have awaited the day when they would be revived to fight the Horde. The Val-kyrie were – are – dedicated to supporting the Guardians in the war to come. Every single Val-kyrie knows the legend and lives for the day when she may do something to help the Guardians end the Horde threat." Graza wore a bemused look as the techs, coming and going, continued to grab a long look at Adrian as if they were burning the image into their memories.

"Seeing a Guardian is a rare treat for most people on this ship. Having all six of the legendary battlesuits and their operations on one battlestar, well, I'm afraid every crewmember will be bragging about that for months." The look in Graza's face said that even she wasn't above bragging about what she had done so far in support of the Guardians. And she had every right to.

Adrian frowned. "So even in passing, they want to get an eyeful because they may never get another chance."

"Exactly. There are thousands who will never even catch a glimpse of one of you, but knowing you are out there fighting the Horde is enough."

"I guess a hero's welcome is in store for us when we reach your home world?"

Graza nodded. "Once we arrive, that is."

"You mean we haven't arrived yet?" Adrian recalled the star maps he had reviewed during the mission. He knew where the penal planet was in relation to the Wayfarer trade port and the Val-kyrie home world. The unclaimed system hadn't been more than a couple days flight in hyperspace.

"The battle with the _Hoscar_ confirmed suspicions we've had for some time about General Rongar. His flagship was equipped with experimental weapons the intelligence division thinks may soon become standard armament. The general was able to actually inflict damage on the _Logoss_." Graza paused. Seeing the surprised looks of her audience, she continued. "This ship is equipped with an older hyperdrive requiring a carefully balanced heat sink system to bleed off the excess heat during operation. Normally, it isn't an issue because the heat is bled off even while in hyperspace. However, the _Hoscar_ managed to damage several of the heat sinks. Now, we have to drop out of hyperspace after a set numbers of arns of operation to bleed off heat."

Adrian knew that an 'arn' was the Val-kyrie word for hour, courtesy of Anyssa's language lessons. "So a trip normally taking no more than two days would end up being considerably longer.

Graza nodded. "And the system breaks down from the strain on the remaining undamaged heat sinks. Which makes the trip even longer. So, a two day trip in this case becomes nearly eight days."

"Ouch," Apone grumbled.

"Exactly," Graza agreed.

"It's all my fault," Adrian said, shaking his head. "If I hadn't tried to draw off the pursuing Horde ships, the _Logoss_ would be home now."

"No, it isn't. Captain Majourny and Commander Fontaine will explain that. All I know is that your move did have the desired effect. It was the best possible outcome under the circumstances." Graza stared deep into Adrian's eyes. "No matter what you might be thinking and feeling right now, you and the Sorceress came back alive. That is all that matters."

Graza bid them farewell. She had duties to get back to. Adrian and Apone pushed on to the aft end of the bay where the _Eternia_ and _Ladyhawke_ were parked.

_They all have such kind hearts,_ Graza thought as she walked through the connecting tunnel to the maintenance bay in the belly of the ship. _"And yet, having seen Adrian on the battlefield, I would never have suspected he was the operator of a Guardian battlesuit. I guess it's true. Some people really do have a switch in their brain that gets flipped when entering and exiting a battle. The problem is making sure that that switch never gets stuck in one position._

"Got a new patient for you, doc," Apone announced when he and Adrian arrived in the _Eternia_'s sick bay.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Lieutenant Commander Emilio Carter, chief medical officer of the Starship _Eternia,_ beamed, all smiles.

"I forgot how painful living can be," Adrian replied, looking about the outer office. "You don't appear too terribly surprised."

"I just received the medical file from Garan. You look a lot healthier than you probably should be. I figured the ability of the Guardian armor to heal their operators was considerable when the Sorceress was afflicted with the cellular degeneration disease. Considering the injuries you arrived in their med lab with, you shouldn't be up and about yet," Doctor Carter explained. He was truly impressed with the battlesuits. It seems there was no end to the things he could learn about them. Gabe had been seriously understating things when he claimed that the capabilities of each battlesuit was limited only by the imaginations of the individual operators.

Of course, he was required to perform his own examination, which was why Adrian was here. Best to get it out of the way now. Apone left to report to Captain Majourny and Colonel Markson that Adrian was back on board.

Emilio led Adrian to the back room where the rows of bio beds were. He gestured to the next one in line at the back wall; the one next to the sleeping Sorceress of Grayskull, or Teelana, as she was calling herself until she returned to the castle. Doctor Carter explained that her condition was stable, but her life signs had been extremely low when she had first arrived. They had risen since then, but the rate was slower the Emilio liked. He confessed to not knowing how it happened, only that it had something to do with getting Falcon reverted from steath-mode medallion back to the battle-mode battlesuit.

Adrian asked if there was a correlation between Falcon's repair and Teelana's recovery. Emilio, feigning indignation at the hint that he couldn't think outside the box, admitted that was the first thing he had looked into. There was a correlation, but the ratio between the battlesuit repairs and Teelana's recovery was too wide to be relevant. No doubt, Falcon's repair was having a positive effect, but it was a small help to the operator.

Teelana wasn't in a coma. Doctor Carter said it was more like a deep sleep. Regardless, Adrian couldn't help staring at the slumbering woman. She looked more at peace now than she ever had during the mission. He knew something had been eating away at her, but she refused to acknowledge that anything was wrong. Teelana often commented on how stubborn some of her new friends could be. However, she failed to realize that she could be just as stubborn as anyone else. She would talk when she was ready.

_Everyone has secrets,_ Adrian thought, grimly. _I just hope hers doesn't come back to haunt us._

6


	8. Ch 6

SIX

Horde Shipyards

Argolus Star System

16 July 2017

The Argolus system was located approximately six lightyears from the heart of the Horde Empire, Horde World. The empire's home system was the most heavily defended system in the known galaxy. And then there was the Argolus star system. It was the location of the biggest ship construction and repair docks in the empire. There were other mineral-rich systems within twenty lightyears of the home system that also contained construction and repair yards, but none compared to the sprawling complexes of the Argolus system.

Most of the facilities were located deep in the system in the orbital plains of the third, fourth, and fifth planets. The third planet was habitable with surface installations that were actually massive underground networks of repair docks, and an array of dry docks in orbit. Argolus III's moon, about the same size as Earth's, also has subsurface and orbital facilities.

Argolus V had only orbiting facilities around the planet because it had a hostile atmosphere of corrosive gases that destroyed anything mechanical in a matter of hours. High winds made landing suicidal, so it was determined that only orbital docks would do despite the rich resources that were virtually inaccessible.

Argolus IV, however, was altogether different. It was rich in resources, had an almost primordial atmosphere that still allowed for surface and subsurface installations to be constructed, and was almost as massive as Saturn making it the ideal place for ship construction.

The rest of the solar system was rich in minerals needed for the production of not only warships, but also troopers, weapons, and the other vehicles and items needed by the empire's armies. Operations ran day and night without rest. All the factory systems did. When engaged in a campaign to conquer the galaxy, one could not take weekends and holidays off.

General Femora commanded the entire installation, unusual in that usually a commander was placed in charge of repair and construction facilities. With Argolus being relatively close to the Horde home system, a commanding general was needed to take charge of more than just the repair docks and construction facilities.

Argolus was the primary supply base for the Home Fleet charged with defending the home system and the Argolus system. Both solar systems were augmented by a fearsome array of offensive, defensive, and surveillance systems that even the Val-kyrie respected.

General Femora knew the Val-kyrie would have to send in their entire battlestar fleet to crack Argolus' defenses. She estimated losses on both sides would be heavy, but simulations showed that the Horde would be victorious.

Barely.

At present, Femora stood before the massive viewport in her office aboard the command station is high orbit of Argolus IV. She was an impressive humanoid standing five-foot eleven inches in height. Her figure was slim, proportional, and toned from a regular workout regimen. She could give General Rongar a run for his credits in a one-on-one match, or so the rumors went. Femora took great care in the wear of her uniform. She had learned from Rongar's example that to lead troopers into battle, one must do more than simply look the part. Femora was one of the few generals who earned the respect of the sentients and robots. If the time ever came to lead the Home Fleet warships stationed in the system into battle, Femora was one who could lead them to victory.

The view always calmed her when she sought peace of mind. To anyone else, the fleets of shuttles, tugs and carriers moving about the systems looked chaotic, but it was a carefully coordinated chaos. Femora knew there were construction crews in some of the shuttles while others carried tech teams. Tugs towed major prefabricated ship structures to the required locations. Ore carriers brought in raw materials for the refineries. All vessels had their assigned traffic routes to take throughout the system. Just thinking about the logistics involved gave Femora headaches. She was thankful for the computers and the many redundancies built in to bypasses that prevented failures that could spell disaster.

Femora turned away from the view and sat down at the large desk. No trinkets adorned the smooth surface. In fact, the entire office was bare of any personal touch. Pictures of various war machines hung on the walls. Two comfortable chairs sat opposite the desk, and there was a U-shaped formation of couches around a low table in the center of the room. The table and desk housed comm. gear, holographic projectors and links to the main computer to call up whatever information was desired. The furniture was all a uniform medium blue against the standard slate gray of the walls, floor and ceiling. Femora had debated adding a little color to the depressing Horde decorating scheme, but she reserved that for her private quarters.

At the touch of a control pad on the right side, the desktop came alive with status displays in the surface, holo-projections in the far corners, and a crystal panel the slid up in the back center of the desk displaying the primary information she needed to know. Top of the list of repair schedules and construction progress of the latest wave of warships was an estimated time of arrival for a severely damaged battleship.

The _Hoscar_ was due to arrive at any moment. The approach vector through the outer sensor ring and primary defenses had been cleared of all traffic. There was only one safe approach that was the primary ingress and egress through the gauntlet of defenses. There were others, but they were only used when the system was under direct assault. Captain Dragnar's battleship was to drop out of hyperspace just short of the outer defense ring where the waiting tugs would take it in tow. Femora had ordered up extra tugs because it was likely that the four escorting warships would burn out their hyperdrives once Sagan's crazy operation was completed.

She had reviewed the data transmitted from the _Hoscar_ on how the maneuver would be accomplished. Femora had enough familiarity with the basic design to know how it usually ended in failure. She could also identify the modifications Sagan had made to ensure a better than even chance of success.

_No wonder Rongar holds on to Sagan so jealously,_ Femora thought, smiling. _The man has a genius that was underappreciated in the science academy._

In reviewing Sagan's records, Femora discovered that he had pioneered the changes to the escort maneuver currently bringing the _Hoscar_ home, but his peers wouldn't listen. They considered him an inexperienced upstart who had no concept of what the real world was like. General Rongar had taken over the research and development of capital ship systems and he needed a new staff after clearing out the deadwood. Rongar found Sagan relegated to an obscure section where he was out of sight and out of mind. The academics were glad to be rid of Sagan. In fact, they couldn't get him off Home World fast enough.

Their mistake became evident within six months. The R&D division began field testing new equipment by the end of the first year. New advancements kept coming on a regular basis in the form of new systems, upgrades, and even a few radical new warship designs. Sagan was credited with many of the advancements, while the entire development team basked in the light of pushing Horde technology forward.

And now Sagan had made it possible to finally bring back data on the Val-kyrie's most dreaded weapon to date. The _Battlestar_-class warship. Finally, the Horde would have something to build upon to create their own heavy cruiser combining the power of a battleship with the firepower of an aircraft carrier, and the speed and maneuverability of a battlecruiser. Attempts to do so to date had been dismal failures.

Femora checked the chronometer once again. It was almost time. She called up the real-time from the outer rim sensor post. Somewhere out there a formation of five ships would exit hyperspace. The seconds ticked away as the tug pilots waited anxiously. Transports waited just within the outer defense line to take off survivors from the _Hoscar_.

The time came…and passed, but there was no warning of an incoming hyperspace wave.

Femora frowned. The time transmitted from the fleet had been an approximation, but she had been assured that it could not have been off by more than a few minutes. Of course, something might have developed forcing the fleet to reduce speed in hyperspace, which would throw off the arrival time. Or there could have been a cascade failure in one hyperdrive. The resulting explosion would have wiped out all five warships. They would never know if that had happened.

Femora keyed the comm system and opened a channel to the commander of the tug fleet. "Anything?"

"No, General Femora," the vac-suited humanoid replied. "The proximity sensors are quiet. Defense Command reports nothing on long-range sensors."

Femora nodded. "The timing was only an estimate so stay sharp out there. I will decide when to stand down."

"Understood." The tug pilot closed the connection and resumed his watch.

Minutes dragged by with no warning of incoming ships. After almost an hour of waiting, Femora started to consider that the fleet had been lost. Sagan's report indicated that if there was no sign after an hour or so, no one would be arriving. Reluctantly, Femora activated the comm system once more.

A system-wide alert interrupted her.

"_Alert! Alert! Incoming hyperspace wave. We have vessels on approach."_

Femora opened a channel connecting the waiting tugs and transports with Defense Command. "Is the hyperspace footprint on the standard approach vector for the system?"

"Yes, General Femora. Indications conform to the size made by multiple inbound vessels," the watch commander answered.

As she watched the real-time display from the system's rim, the characteristic cloud of a hyperspace portal formed. A huge one. A formation of five vessels emerged from hyperspace well short of the perimeter defense ring and slowed to a crawl. The warships surrounding the fifth peeled away from the center vessel like a flower blooming. There were visible flashes from the aft end of those ships that did not come from the engine nozzles.

The tech on duty at the sensor station in Defense Command reported hyperdrive failures on all four ships. The sublight drives died moments later leaving them drifting away. The crews of those ships eventually brought their vessels to a halt using maneuvering thrusters. The possibility that the ships would be crippled by the flight proved true. Once all the warships were stopped, the tugs and transports moved in.

Through it all, there was no communication from any of the new arrivals. Defense Command continued to call them requesting a response. Femora could understand the captains ignoring the calls until their vessels were under control. Minutes after the situation settled, reports from the four escort vessels came in. The reports were the same. Hyperdrive failures resulting in a cascade effect that took down the sublight drives as well. The tugs began coordinating linkups for tow into repair docks vacated in orbit of Argolus V. Femora was glad she had ordered space cleared in case it was needed, but she was concerned by the lack of response from the _Hoscar_.

Captain Dragnar's ship appeared to be completely dead in space. The initial report stated that the main drives would function at up to fifteen percent thrust, but the vessel simply hung in space. Several tugs were in place near the damaged bow, but by regulation they could not move in until the ship's status was known.

Defense Command finally got its response as the other warships were being moved through the approach corridor. Captain Dragnar's image finally replaced a static-filled display, though the connection was far from perfect on the other end.

Femora saw a dirty, haggard man bordering on exhaustion. "Battleship _Hoscar_ reporting in. We are stable-ish and ready for tow. Complete damage list transmitting now."

"Welcome home, captain. Seems Rongar's flare for the dramatic has rubbed off on you," Femora replied, relieved that there were still survivors on board. She saw the transmission complete on another monitor. Femora stored it away for later review.

"Sorry about that, general. Our comm system is having issues, which is minor compared to the rest of the ship," Dragnar answered.

"The view from here doesn't look too bad. Bow will need some major work, though." Femora's attention was drawn to the channel used by the tug crews. They operated in teams with their own channels assigned on a daily basis. The channel for the crew linking up to the _Hoscar_ lit up with some rather racy exclamations. "From the sounds of the tug crews, I gather I haven't seen anything yet."

Dragnar shook his head. "Oh, no. It was a miracle the old girl held up."

"Well, I hope it was worth the risk. Do you know if your main computer core is even salvageable?"

"The general and Sagan have been evaluating it, but they have resisted applying any power to the core until the experts in the docks can have a look at it," Dragnar answered, wearily. "I'll just be glad when this day is over."

"Well, you and your crew have earned a well-deserved break. Once your ship is docked, I don't want to see any of you near the _Hoscar_ for at least seven days." A slight smile curled up the left side of Femora's mouth. "And that goes double for Rongar and Sagan." She knew the pair was listening in. Rongan's chuckle in the background confirmed it. Femora continued, "The _Hoscar_ may not be salvageable, but we can discuss a replacement later. For now, I want you to get the ship secured and let Captain Drozz's crews do their work."

Dragnar acknowledged the orders and signed off.

Femora breathed a heavy sigh. She had expected a fight over seeing to the evaluation and salvage operation, but the lack of protest came as somewhat of a surprise. Curiosity finally got the better of her so Femora called up the damage report Captain Dragnar submitted. The initial items didn't appear to be that bad until she began sifting through the images of the damage shot by General Rongar when he sortied in a scout bat mek. Femora's jaw dropped open at the sight.

_Dragnar wasn't kidding. They _are _lucky the ship held up._ Her experienced eye picked out the repairs done in later images to reinforce the structure in preparation for the hyperspace jump. Femora had come up through the ranks working the shipyards so she knew something about the type of structural damage the _Hoscar_ had suffered in the battle. _I guess I can chuck the data files on the Val-krie battlestars. They clearly have upgraded their design much more than we could ever have guessed,_ Femora mused. _Where in the name of Horde Prime are they getting such power?_

Now she understood why Dragnar and Rongar had been so adamant to get the computer core back. The hull could be completely discarded if it meant that the precious data in the core memory was recovered intact. The captains of the disabled starships would never understand just how important attempting such a dangerous hyperspace tow was. They could only see the stunt as another one in a long line of Rongar's spectacular operations.

No matter. Her facilities would fix the _Hoscar_ or build a new one. Who knows, she just might be able to negotiate for some of the new systems the Research and Development Command had been testing lately. Especially the primary guns Dragnar's ship had been outfitted with.

Yes, it was high time the Horde started a crash course in design improvements to catch up with the Val-kyrie. The alternative was not something Femora wanted to contemplate.

Uncharted Space

Lord Malkor awaited his best operative in the main briefing room on the warship's starboard side. The lights were dimmed like most of the ship because their eyesight was so good that they didn't need much to see. His race could tolerate the normal light on most habitable worlds without some type of shades. Thousands of years of evolution with a bit of genetic tweaks here and there didn't hurt, either.

He watched the work going on beyond the viewport knowing that the work progressed to bring the remains of the fleet back to life. Flashes here and there on the closer warships indicated repair work in progress. A lot of resources had been stored away on the ships for just this reason. Those ships that had not survived the Long Sleep were being cannibalized for whatever was needed after the dead crew had been properly buried in space.

There had been a lot of those burials, but below the projected minimum. Nevertheless, Malkor felt they were diminished by each lost warrior.

The doors parted with a slight change in air pressure. A tall female strode purposely into the room, glowing red eyes taking in the scene at a glance. Her every movement was that of an experienced hunter. She stopped at the head of the large table that was the centerpiece of the room, came to attention and snapped her right arm up horizontally across her chest; fist smacking the armor chest plate of her uniform.

"M'lord, reporting as ordered," Shiva said, her tone clipped and professional.

Although the red glow hid the eyeballs, she knew Malkor's eyes had shifted slightly to regard her reflection in the viewport. The supreme commander turned away from the port, unclasped his hands from behind his back and faced her. He returned her salute.

"I'd ask you to sit, but I seem to remember you prefer to stand. You are aware of our current situation?" When Shiva nodded, he continued. "We must gather more information on the current state of this galaxy and the extent of Horde Prime's influence."

The doors parted and Cilian strode in. Her gait paused ever so slightly as she walked across to stand opposite her lord. There was a thinly veiled animosity between Shiva and Cilian. Both were very good at their job. The two were always in competition to be the best. Others followed their example, but Malkor feared the competition might blind them to the mission which could lead to fatal mistakes. That was part of the reason why Malkor had added Cilian to his personal staff, though Shiva likely had her own reasons for the promotion she had evidently wanted.

Cilian held a data pad containing the information Malkor had requested. Malkor gestured for her to read off her findings.

"As you suspected, my lord, the Val-kyrie have locked us out of the sensor net. The secondary net we set up prior to the Long Sleep has given us some information, but not as much as we need," Cilian reported in the same clipped tone Shiva has used. "There has been an interesting development, however. There is a repeating hail being broadcast on a specific frequency that we don't use anymore."

Malkor raised and inquiring eyebrow. "Oh?"

"It took some searching, but I finally identified the hail. It is specific to the covert operations command," Cilian answered. "I thought that command had been wiped out by Horde Prime prior to our final defeat."

"So it had appeared at the time," Malkor agreed. "I suppose it is possible that a few had escaped Horde Prime's purge, but they wouldn't have had access to cryo-sleep chambers."

"It was no secret that the covert operators got whatever they needed," Shiva said. "They have gotten a starship equipped with a few chambers. Probably a frigate-class vessel."

"If this is authentic, how would they know that there was anyone out in space to receive the signal?" Cilian said.

"As Shiva pointed out, the cover operators usually got whatever they wanted. It's liked a ship equipped with cryo-sleep chambers would also be equipped with the system to detect the revival of the Guardian battlesuits just like our ships." Malkor thought for a moment about this unexpected turn of events. If the signal was authentic, then there might just be a new intelligence source out there to tap into. The possibility could not be allowed to pass them by. "Shiva, take Serenvee with you as soon as she has sufficiently recovered and trace the source of the hail. If it is indeed a ship from the covert ops command, we will certainly need them to rebuild. They will also prove useful in gathering intel on the Val-kyrie. We need to know whether or not they can be brought back into the fold, or if they will fight us. There may even be an opportunity to get information on one or more of the Guardians." Malkor faced the woman directly and held her unwavering gaze with his own. "However, under no circumstances are you to engage a Guardian. That must be perfectly clear. Do not engage them. If the experiment worked, then there is no telling what kind of power they now possess. Clear?"

Shiva nodded. "Very clear, my lord."

"Then I won't keep you any further. Cilian will see to you that you get whatever supplies you require for the mission."

"I have a long-range scout ship equipped with a sensor cloaking system ready and waiting in the port side hangar bay," Cilian replied. She couldn't quite mask her displeasure at having to assist Shiva. She would do her duty regardless. At the moment, the sooner Shiva was on her way the better Cilian would like it.

6


End file.
